CTIII. SANTALACE^. 333 



men and axile embryo. — Trees, shrubs, undershrubs or herbs, 

 often having parasitical attachment to the roots of other 

 plants. Leaves simple, opposite or alternate, exstipulate, 

 often glaucous. Flowers small, greenish, white or pale-yellow. 



Calyx not prolonged as a tube above the ovary, (Large 



shrubs, with opposite leaves.) 

 Calyx 4-lobed ; lobes deciduous in fruit .... 1. OsYRiS. 

 Calyx 5-lobed ; lobes persistent in fruit .... 2. Rhoiocaepiis. 

 Calyx sensibly prolonged as a tube above the ovary. 



(Small shrubs or herbs, with alternate, often 



minute leaves.) 

 Flowers bisexual ; calyx 5-lobed. 



Fruit a thin-shelled, fleshy drupe 3. Ostridocaeptts. 



Fruit a dry, hard- shelled, ribbed nut .... 4. Thesium. 

 Flowers dioecious ; calyx 4-lobed ; leaves small or 



scale-like 5. Thesidium. 



1. OSYRIS, Linn. 



Flowers bisexual (or dioecious). Tube of the calyx slender 

 in the males ; in the females or hermaphrodite obconic ; limb 

 deeply 3-4-lobed ; lobes ovate, acute, with or without a few 

 deciduous hairs on the surface. Stamens 3-4 ; filaments 

 short ; anthers 2-celled. Disk concave, with round lobes, 

 covering the upper and undivided part of jjerianth. Ovary 

 fleshy ; style short ; stigmas 3-4. Drupe ovoid-globose, 

 crowned with broken vestiges of the limb and disk. — DG. 

 Prod. xiv. p. 632. 



Shrubs or trees, chiefly of the Northern hemisphere. — O. compressa, 

 A. DC. (Fusamis compresstis, Lam.), our only species, is a common, glau- 

 cous shrub, with opposite leaves, very variable in sliape. 



2. RHOIOCARPUS, A. DC. 



Flowers bisexual, 5- rarely 6-fid ; tube narrow-obconic ; 

 lobes ovate, acute, persistent, with a tuft of hairs on the sur- 

 face. Stamens with slender filaments and 2-celled anthers. 

 Disk subconcave, with very obtuse, short lobes. Style cylin- 

 drical-conical ; stigmas 5, short. Ovary fleshy. Drupe ovoid, 

 crowned with the persistent limb of the calyx. — DC. Frod. 

 xiv. p. 634. 



A shrub, with the habit of Osyris compressa^ from which it is known by 

 -the persistent, 5-fid limb of perianth. — Eastern districts. 



3. OSYRIDOCARPUS, A. DC. 



Flowers bisexual. Calyx obconical at base, and there ad- 

 hering to the ovary, prolonged upwards into a cylindrical- 

 funnel-shaped tube, 5-lobed at apex, a tuft of hairs on the 

 middle of each lobe. Stamens 5, inserted beneath the lobes 

 near the apex of tube ; filaments slender, equalling the 2- 



