448 THYMEL^ACE.E. (mEZEREUM FAMILY.) 



Order 94. TUYMEI^JEACTIJB, (Mezereum Family.) 



Shrubs, with acrid and very tough (not aromatic) bark, entire leaves, and 

 perfect Jiowers with a regular and simple colored calyx, bearing usually 

 twice as many stamens as its lobes, free from the 1-celled and 1-ovuled ovary, 

 which forms a berry-Hke drupe in fruit, with a single suspended anatro- 

 pous seed. Embryo large ; albumen little or none. 



1. Dirca. Calyx tubular, without spreading lobes. Stamens and style exserted. 



2. Daphne. Calyx-lobes (4) spreading. Stamens included. Style very short or none. 



1. DIRCA, L. Leatherwood. Moosewood. 



Calyx petal-like, tubular-funnel-shaped, truncate, the border .wavy or ob- 

 scurely about 4-toothed. Stamens 8, long and slender, inserted on the calyx 

 above the middle, protruded, the alternate ones longer. Style thread-form ; 

 stigma capitate. Drupe oval (reddish). — A much-branched bush, with jointed 

 branchlets, oval-obovate alternate leaves, at length smooth, deciduous, on very 

 short petioles, the bases of which conceal the buds of the next season. Flowers 

 light yellow, preceding the leaves, 3 or 4 in a cluster from a bud of as many 

 dark-hairy scales, forming an involucre, from which soon after proceeds a leafy 

 branch. (Name of uncertain derivation.) 



1. D. palustris, L. Shrub 2-5^ high; the wood white, soft, and very 

 brittle ; but the fibrous bark remarkably tough (used by the Indians for thongs, 

 whence the popular names). — I)amp rich woods, N. Brunswick to Minn, and 

 Mo., south to the Gulf. April. 



2. DAPHNE, Linn. Mezereum. 



Calyx salver-shaped or somewhat funnel-shaped, the border spreading and 

 4-lobe'd. Stamens 8, included ; the anthers nearly sessile on the calyx-tube. 

 Style very short or none ; stigma capitate. Drupe red. — Hardy low shrub. 

 (Mythological name of tlie nymph transformed by Apollo into a Laurel.) 



D. MEztuEUM, L. Shrub 1-3° high, with purple-rose-colored (rarely 

 wlnte) flowers, in lateral clusters on shoots of the preceding year, before the 

 lanceolate very smooth green leaves ; berries red. — Escaped from cultivation 

 in Canada, Mass., and N. Y. Early spring. (Xat. from Eu.) 



Order 95. EL^JAGXACE^E. (Oleaster Family.) 



Shrubs or small trees, with silvery-scurfy leaves and perfect or dioecious 

 flowers ; further distinguished from the Mezereum Family by the erect 

 or ascending albuminous seed, and the calyx-tube becoming pulpy and 

 berry-like in fruit, strictly enclosing the achene. 



1. £laeagnus. Flowers perfect. Stamens 4. Leaves alternate. 



2. Shepherdia. Flowers dioecious. Stamens 8. Leaves opposite. 



1. EL-aiAGNUS, Tourn. 



Flowers perfect. Calyx cylindric-campanulate above the persistent oblong 

 or globose base, the limb valvately 4-cleft, deciduous. Stamens 4, in the throat. 

 Style linear, stigmatic on one side. Fruit drupe-like, with an oblong, 8-striate 

 stone. — Leaves alternate, entire and petioled, and flowers axillary and pedi- 



