62 THYMELEACE^E. Dirca. 



middle of the tube, exserted, the alternate ones shorter. Ovary glabrous : style 

 filiform, nearly terminal, exceeding the stamens : ovule solitary. Drupe oval, naked, 

 reddish. Much branched shrubs, with short-jointed branchlets ; leaves alternate, 

 deciduous, oval-obovate, on very short petioles, the bases covering the buds of the 

 next year ; flowers in axillary clusters of 3 or 4, involucrate with as many densely 

 hairy scales and preceding the leafy branchlets. Only two species. 



1. D. OCCidentaliS, Gray. A diffuse shrub 3 or 4 feet high : leaves obovate to 

 oval, 1 to 2| inches long, rounded or cuneate at base, obtuse or acutish, with the 

 branchlets somewhat villous, becoming glabrous : scales of the involucre white- 

 villous, 3 to 5 lines long : flowers nearly sessile, 3 or 4 lines long, rather deeply 

 3 - 4-lobed, the rounded slightly spreading lobes a line long : stamens inserted below 

 the middle of the tube. Proc. Am. Acad. viii. 631. D, palustris, Torrey, Pacif. 

 E. Rep. iv. 133. 



Frequent in ravines on the eastern slope of the Oakland Hills, flowering in April ; the mature 

 fruit has not been collected. It differs from D. palustris, Linn., of the Atlantic region, 7nainly iu 

 the deeper calyx-lobes, lower insertion of the stamens, sessile flowers, and whiter involucre. 



ORDER LXXXIII. EK2EAGNACE.SI. 



Shrubs or small trees, without tough bark, the foliage scurfy throughout with 

 scarious silvery or brown scales, with regular flowers mostly dioecious, the perianth 

 herbaceous or colored within, its tube lined with a prominent disk bearing the sta- 

 mens, enclosing the 1 -celled ovary, and becoming pulpy or spongy without and 

 bony within ; style terminal ; fruit a membranous akene, closely covered by the 

 drupe-like calyx-tube, and the seed erect, with scanty albumen ; radicle inferior and 

 cotyledons narrower : otherwise nearly as the last order. Flowers solitary or vari- 

 ously clustered in the axils of the branchlets. 



A small order of 4 genera and about 30 species, chiefly of tropical or subtropical Asia ; only 4 

 species of 2 genera are North American. The second genus, Elceaynus, of the Rocky Mountains 

 and eastward, is distinguished by having perfect flowers with only 4 stamens. 



1. SHEPHERDIA, Nutt. BUFFALO-BERRY. 



Flowers dioecious. Staminate perianth 4-parted, the lobes spreading, valvate in 

 the globular bud. Stamens 8, alternate with as many lobes of a thick disk ; fila- 

 ments free, shorter than the limb. Pistillate flowers with oblong-tubular perianth ; 

 limb 4-cleft, erect, and the throat closed by the lobes of the disk. Style persistent ; 

 stigma lateral. Fruit berry-like, with a smooth shining compressed seed. Leaves 

 opposite, deciduous ; flowers small (the staminate larger), shortly pedicellate. Only 

 the following species. 



1. S. argentea, Nutt. A somewhat spiny shrub, 5 to 18 feet high : leaves 

 silvery on both sides, mostly oblong, obtuse, cuneate at base, 1 to \\ inches long: 

 staminate flowers 1^ lines long, the pistillate 1 line: fruit a smooth ovoid scarlet 

 berry, 2| lines long, acid and edible, nearly sessile. Genera, ii. 240. S. elceag- 

 noides, Nutt. in Proc. Acad. Philad. vii. 50. 



East of the Sierra Nevada, from Mono Lake northward to British America and the Saskatche- 

 wan, and in the mountains south to New Mexico. Flowers forming and sometimes opening in 

 the autumn : fruit ripening in July, often abundant. 



