164 ELEAGNACE^. Shepheedia. 



Order XC. ELEAGNACEiE. R. Brown. The Oleaster Tribe. 



Flowers mostly dioecious. Calyx 2 - 4-lobed, persistent. Stamens 4-8, inserted 

 into the margin of the torus : filaments almost none : anthers introrse, 2-celled. 

 Ovary free, but surrounded with the tube of the calyx, with the solitary ovule 

 ascending from near the base : style short : stigma capitate or unilateral. 

 Fruit a crustaceous achenium, enclosed in the berry-like persistent calyx-tube. 

 Seed conformed to the cavity of the fruit. Embryo in the axis of thin or fleshy 

 albumen : cotyledons thick : radicle short, conical. — Shrubs or small trees, 

 with the leaves covered with brownish or silvery scurfy scales. Flowers 

 axillary, solitary, spiked or paniculate. 



1. SHEPHERDIA. Nutt. gen. 2. p. 241 ; Endl. gen. 2113. shbpherdia. 



[ Named in honor of John Shepherd, late curator of the Liverpool Botanic Garden.] 



Flowers dioecious. Sterile fl. Calyx 4-parted. Stamens 8, alternating with the 8 glandular 

 processes of the disk. Fertile fl. Calyx urceolate-campanulate ; the limb 4-cleft ; the 

 tube enclosing the ovary ; the orifice closed with the teeth of the torus. Stamens none. 

 Ovary oval : style single, capitate, oblique. Achenium oval, enclosed in the succulent 

 berry-like calyx-tube. — Shrubs, with deciduous opposite leaves and aggregated flowers. 



I. Shepherdia Canadensis, Nutt. Canadian Shepherdia. 



Leaves elliptical -ovate, nearly naked above, densely clothed with stellate hairs and 

 ferruginous scales underneath. — Nutt. gen. 2. p. 241 ; Torr. compend. p. 376 ; Beck, hot. 

 p. 306 ; Hook. fl. Bor.-Am. 2. p. 138 ; Loud. enc. tr. <^ shr. p. 700. Jig. 1732. Hippophae 

 Canadensis, Linn. sp. 1. p. 1024 ; Michx. fl. 2. p. 227 ; Willd. sp. 4. p. 744 ; Pursh,fl. 1. 

 p. 119. 



A shrub 4-8 feet high, with numerous opposite branches. Leaves 1-2 inches long and 

 from half an inch to nearly an inch wide, on short petioles ; the lower surface densely clothed 

 with beautifully stellate persistent white hairs, and also with numerous little brownish peltate 

 deciduous scales which are more or less deeply ciliate all round : the same kinds of scales 

 and pubescence are found, but in much smaller quantity, on the upper surface, as well as the 

 young twigs, scales, and even the fruit. Flowers in small axillary fascicles or short racemes, 

 yellowish. Fruit the size of a small pea, sweetish but not edible, oval, consisting of the 

 succulent somewhat diaphanous calyx, enclosing the achenium ; the latter oval, compressed, 

 smooth and polished, with a coriaceo- crustaceous coat. Albumen very thin and fleshy. 

 Cotyledons oval, flattish : radicle short, obtuse. 



Rocky banks of rivers and lakes in the northern and western parts of the State. Fl. May, 

 Fr. August. 



