(ME/EREUM FAMILY.) 395 



jarge shrub, with numerous spreading and forked branches. Leaves somewhat 

 coriaceous, '- 1' long. 



5. CASSYTA, L. 



Flowers perfect. Calyx 6-cleft, persistent, the exterior lobes minute. Sta- 

 mens 12, in 4 rows, the inner row sterile : anthers 2-ceIled, the inner ones 

 extrorse, the outer introrse. Style very short : stigma disk-like. Fruit enclosed 

 in the fleshy persistent tube of the calyx. A leafless parasitic plant, with 

 twining filiform stems, and spiked flowers. 



1. C. flliformis, Miller. South Florida. Spikes 2- 4-flowered. Calyx- 

 lobes thick, triangular, acute. Anthers oval, obtuse. 



ORDER 112. THYMELEACE^E. (MEZERETJM FAMILY.) 



Shrubs, with acrid juice, tough bark, simple entire dotless leaves, with- 

 out stipules, and regular perfect flowers, with a tubular or bell-shaped 

 4 - 5-cleft rarely entire calyx. Stamens commonly twice as many as the 

 calyx-lobes, in 2 rows : anthers 2-celled, opening lengthwise. Style sim- 

 ple : stigma capitate. Drupe with a single suspended anatropous seed, 

 containing little or no albumen. Cotyledons plano-convex. Radicle 

 superior. 



1. DIRCA, L. LBATHERWOOD. 



Calyx bell-shaped, entire, or obscurely 4-toothed. Stamens 8, unequal, ex- 

 serted. Style filiform. Albumen none. A low branching shrub, with alter- 

 nate petioled oblong or obovate at length smooth and deciduous leaves, and 

 light yellow flowers, from hairy buds, appearing before the leaves. 



1 . D. palustris, L. Shady banks of streams, Florida, and northward. 

 Feb. and March. Shrub 2 -3 high, with pale spreading jointed branches. 

 Leaves 2' long, silky when young. Flowers three in a cluster, on short pedicels. 

 Drupe small, red. 



ORDER 113. SANTALACE^E. (SANDALWOOD FAMILY.) 



Herbs, shrubs, or trees, with simple entire exstipulate leaves. Calyx 

 tubular, 4 - 5-cleft, valvate in the bud, the tube coherent with the ovary, 

 b'tamens 4-5, opposite the lobes, and inserted on the fleshy disk at their 

 base, anthers introrse, opening lengthwise. Ovary 1 -celled, with 2-4 

 anatropous ovules suspended from the apex of the free central placenta. 

 Style single. Fruit 1 -seeded. Embryo small, at the apex of copious 

 albumen. Cotyledons cylindrical. Radicle superior. 



