CKRATOPHYLLACJLfi. (HOKMWOBT FAMILY.) 383 



(Name composed of <po>p, a thief, and SevSpoi/, tree; because these plants steal 

 their food from the trees they grow upon.) 



1. 1*. flavescens, Nutt. (AMERICAN MISTLETOE.) Leaves obovate 

 or oval, somewhat petioled, longer than the spikes in their axils, yellowish ; 

 berries white. ( Viscum flavescens, Pursh. ) New Jersey to Illinois and south- 

 ward, preferring Elms and Hickories. April. 



ORDER 98. SAURURACE^E. (LIZARD'S-TAIL FAMILY.) 



Herbs, with jointed stems, alternate entire leaves ivith stipules, and perfect 

 flowers in spikes, entirely destitute of any floral envelopes, and 3-5 more or 

 less united ovaries. Ovules few, orthotropous. Embryo heart-shaped, 

 minute, contained in a little sac at the apex of the albumen. A kind of 

 offshoot of the Pepper Family (tropical), and represented only by 



1. SA.URtTRUS, L. LIZARD'S-TAIL. 



Stamens mostly 6 or 7, hypogynous, with long and distinct filaments. Fruit 

 somewhat fleshy, wrinkled, of 3 - 4 pistils united at the base, with recurved 

 stigmas. Seeds usually solitary, ascending. A perennial marsh herb, with 

 heart-shaped petioled leaves, and white flowers, each from the axil of a small 

 bract, crowded in a slender wand-like and naked peduncled terminal spike (its 

 appearance giving rise to the name, from aavpos, a lizard, and ovpd, tail). 



1. S. ceriums, L. Margins of ponds, &c. ; common. June. Spike 

 8' - 6' long, drooping at the end. 



ORDER 99. CERATOPHYLlACEJE. (HORNWORT FAM.) 



Aquatic herbs, with whorled finely dissected leaves, and minute axillary and 

 sessile monoecious flowers without any floral envelopes, but with an 8-12- 

 cleft involucre in place of a calyx, the fertile a simple 1-celled ovary, with a 

 suspended orthotropous ovule : seed filled oy a highly developed embryo with 

 4 cotyledons I and a conspicuous plumule. Consists only of the genus 



1. CERATOPHYI.L,UM, L. HORNWORT. 



Sterile flowers of 12-24 stamens with large sessile anthers. Fruit an ache- 

 mum, beaked with the slender persistent style. Herbs growing under water, in 

 ponds or slow-flowing streams : the sessile leaves cut into thrice-forked thread- 

 like rather rigid divisions. (Name from Ktpas, a horn, and <pu\Aoi/, leaf.) 



1. C. demersillll, L. Var. COMMUNE has a smooth marginless fruit 

 beaked with a long persistent style, and with a short spine or tubercle at the 

 base on each side. Var. ECHINATUM (C. echinatum, Gray) has the fruit 

 mostly larger (3" long), rough-pimpled on the sides, the narrowly winged 

 margin spiny-toothed. Slow streams and ponds ; common, but rare >i fruit. 

 Probably there is only one species, (Eu.) 



