OLEASTER FAMILY. 377 



D. oddra, Thunb. (D. Japonica and D. Sinensis). Sweet Daphne. 

 Greenhouse shrub from China, with bright green, lance-oblong leaves, 

 and terminal clusters of white or pale pink sweet-scented flowers, in 

 winter. 



CI. EL-ffiAGNACEiE, OLEASTER FAMILY. 



Silvery-scurfy shrubs or small trees, often having dioecious 

 inconspicuous flowers, the calyx tube of the fertile ones itself 

 inclosing the ovary, becoming fleshy and ripening into a sort 

 of berry around the akene-like true fruit, the seed of which is 

 erect. Otherwise much like the preceding family. Leaves 

 entire. 



1. EL^AGNUS. Flowers perfect and axillary, with a 4-cleft calyx (the border deciduous). 



Stamens 4, inserted on the throat. Style linear, the stigma on the side. Fruit drupe- 

 like, containing a long 8-grooved stone. Leaves alternate. 



2. SHEPHERDIA. Flowers dioecious, the calyx 4-cleft and. in the pistillate flowers, in- 



closing the ovary. Stamens 8, alternating with 8 projections on the disk. Style 

 slender. Fruit berry-like. Leaves opposite. 



1. ELiEAGNUS, OLEASTER. (Greek: sacred o/fre, first applied to 

 the Chaste tree.) Small trees or bushes, with light or white foliage. 



* Pedicels much longer than the flowers or fruit (l'-3'). 



E. Idngipes, Gray. Goumi. (E. edulis of nurseries.) Diffuse tall 

 bush with oval thin leaves, green above and silvery-shining below, and 

 single axillary flowers followed by hanging, oblong, rusty-punctate drupes. 

 Japan. Cult, for the edible fruit. 



* * Pedicels little, if at all, exceeding the flowers. 



E. arg^ntea, Pursh. Silver Bekuv. Wild from Minn., W., and 

 sometimes cult.; 6°-12° high, stoloniferous, the young branches bearing 

 rusty scales ; leaves elliptic or lanceolate and undulate, silvery-scurfy 

 and rusty ; flowers numerous and fragrant, followed by round-ovoid and 

 mealy edible fruit. 



£. hortensis, Bieb. Oleaster. Tall shrub or small tree, often spiny, 

 cult, from the Old World for the whiteness of its cottony shoots and 

 under surfaces of the narrow-lanceolate or lance-ovate, mostly obtuse 

 leaves ; flowers small and yellowish inside, but silvery without, fragrant, 

 followed by small red fruits. The Russian Olive, somewhat planted in 

 the West, is var. Songdrica, Bernh. 



2. SHEPHERDIA. (John Shepherd was once curator of the Liver- 

 pool Botanic Garden. ) 



S. Canadensis, Nutt. A low shrub along our northern borders, with 

 oval leaves, soon green above, but silvery and with .some rusty scurf 

 beneath, 4-partcd flowers, and yellowish berries. 



S. arg^ntea, Nutt. Buifalo Berry. Siirub through the plains and 

 mountains far U'. and N. W., and planted for ornament and fruit, has 

 oblong leaves with narrowed base, silvery both sides, and edible acid red 

 berries. 



