* 

 Comandra. SANTALACE^E. J()3 



A small order of half a dozen rather heterogeneous genera and 20 widely scattered species, the 

 only one that approaches our limits being the following, which may be found in the southeastern 

 portion of the State. 



1. PILOSTYLES, Guillem. 



Flowers dioecious, minute, purplish, subsessile on the branches of chiefly legumi- 

 nous trees or shrubs ; bracts and segments of the perianth scarcely distinct, imbri- 

 cate in several rows, persistent. Anthers numerous, in 1 or 3 rows below the dilated 

 top of the stamineal column, 1 -celled, transversely dehiscent. Summit of the ovary 

 depressed and truncate, surrounded by a stigmatic ring. Fruit a fleshy berry, with 

 numerous minute rounded seeds covering the inner walls of the cavity. Solms- 

 Laubach, Fl. Bras. fasc. Ixxvii. 123. 



Four other species of this genus occur in tropical America, from Mexico to Brazil and Chili, 

 with one in Africa and one in Persia. 



1. P. Thurberi, Gray. Flowers scattered, sessile, 1| lines in diameter: bracts 

 and sepals similar, rounded, glabrous, adnate to the lower half of the globose-ovoid 

 ovary : stigma disk-shaped, with a thickened margin and slightly prominent centre : 

 seeds orthotropous, oval, acutish at both ends, on a slender funiculus of their own. 

 length. PL Thurb. 326 ; Torrey, Bot. Mex. Bound. 207, t. 52 ; Hook. f. in DC. 

 Prodr. xvii. 115. 



On a small mountain near the Gila River in W. Arizona (Thurber), on branches of Dalea 

 Emoryi. The staminate flowers are unknown. 



ORDER XCIX. SANTALACE^I. 



Herbs or shrubs, usually root-parasitic, with angled or striate branches, entire and 

 mostly alternate sessile leaves without stipules, and mostly perfect flowers with 

 3 5-cleft valvate perianth adherent to the 1 -celled 2 - 4-ovuled ovary, which be- 

 comes an indehiscent 1 -seeded usually nut-like fruit; stamens 3 to 5, opposite to 

 the perianth-lobes, at the edge of an epigynous often lobed disk ; style 2 - 5-lobed ; 

 ovules suspended from the top of a free central placenta ; seed without testa, the 

 small straight embryo axile at the apex of the abundant albumen ; radicle supe- 

 rior. 



An order of 20 genera and about 200 species, distributed through the temperate and tropical 

 regions chiefly of the Old World. Besides the following, three other small genera are represented 

 in the Atlantic States. 



1. COMANDRA, Nutt. BASTARD TOAD-FLAX. 



Flowers perfect, the campanulate or urn-shaped perianth with a 5- (rarely 4-) 

 lobed persistent limb. Disk with a free lobed margin. Stamens included, with, 

 linear filaments ; anthers attached by tufts of hairs to the base of the calyx-lobes, 

 the cells distinct at base. Style filiform. Placenta contorted, filiform, about 3- 

 ovuled. Fruit nut-like or drupe-like, the cavity filled by the globular seed. Low 

 herbaceous smooth perennials, with subterranean rootstocks ; leaves alternate, nearly 

 sessile, glaucous, the lowest scale-like ; flowers greenish-white, in small terminal or 

 axillary umbellate clusters. A third species is found in British America and one 

 other in S. Europe. 



1. C. umbellata, Nutt. Stems leafy, 6 to. 15 inches high : leaves oblong, 

 obtuse or acute, ^ to 1^ inches long : umbels few-flowered, corymbosely clustered at 



