418 PIPERACE.E. (PEPPER FAMILY.) 



slightly imbricated iu the bud, deciduous. Stamens 4. Disk of the fertile 

 flower 4-lobed, fleshy. Style short : stigma 4-lobed. Drupe oblong, corn- 

 pressed, furrowed. Embryo slender, in the axis of copious fleshy albumen. 

 An erect shrub, with straight slender brandies. Leaves nearly opposite, dis- 

 tichous, lanceolate, acute, pubescent. Flowers terminal, greenish, the sterile 

 umbellate, the fertile solitary. 



1. B. distichoptiylla, Torr. Mountains of North Carolina (BacUei/). 

 -Shrub 6 -7 high. Leaves thin, l'-l|' long. Calyx tube 4" -5" long, 

 scarcely longer than the exterior spreading lobes, much longer than the inner 

 ones. Drupe \' loug. 



ORDER 114. LORANTHACE^E. (MISTLETOE FAMILY.) 



Parasitical shrubby plants, with evergreen almost veinless leaves, 

 without stipules, and perfect or dioecious flowers. Calyx of 2-8 

 sepals, distinct, or united into a tube, valvate in the bud, sometimes 

 wanting. Stamens as many as the sepals and opposite them. Ovary 

 1-celled, commonly with a single suspended ovule. Style simple or 

 none. Fruit berry-like. Seeds anatropous. Embryo longer than the 

 fleshy albumen. 



1. PHORADENDRON, Nutt. MISTLETOE. 



Flowers dioecious, in short jointed spikes. Calyx of the sterile flower glob- 

 ular, 2 - 4-lobed. Anthers sessile at the base of the lobes, transversely 2-celled. 

 Calyx of the fertile flower adnate to the ovarv. Stigma sessile. Berry glo- 

 bose, pulpy, 1 -seeded. Evergreen shrubs, growing on the branches of vari- 

 ous trees, with brittle jointed stems, thick persistent leaves, and small flowers 

 in axillary spikes. 



1. P. flavescens, Nutt. (Viscnm, Pursh.) Florida to Mississippi, 

 and northward. April -May. Plant yellowish, 2 -3 long. Branches op- 

 posite or whorled. Leaves obovate, fleshy. Spikes shorter than the leaves. 

 Berry white, glutinous. 



ORDER 115. PIPER ACE^E. (PEPPER FAMILY.) 



Chiefly herbs with jointed stems, entire leaves, and perfect achla- 

 mydeous flowers in bracted spikes or racemes. Stamens few or many, 

 hypogynous : anthers opening lengthwise. Ovaries single, or 3-5, and 

 more or less united. Ovules few or solitary, orthotropous, ascending. 

 Embryo minute, contained in a cavity at the apex of the albumen. 

 Fruit 1 - few-seeded. 



1. SAURURUS, L. LIZARD'S-TAII, 



Stamens 4-8, with long club-shaped filameiits. Anthers introrse. Fruit 

 somewhat fleshy, composed of 3-4 partly united 1 -2-seeded carpels, pointed 

 with as many recurved stigmas. Flowers white. 



