Comindra. SANTALACE^. ^^o 



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



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, hub - 

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

 top of the stamineal column, l-celle,!, transversely dehiscent. 8u.nmit of the ovary 

 depressed and truncate, surrounded by a stigmatic ring. I'r.iit a lleshy berry with 

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

 Laubach, ]<1. Bras. fasc. Ixxvii. 123. ^ 



wiur 0^:^ AfS'i^iJc^I:; hfsr"" " '"^^'^^^ ^""'''^^' '^^^ ^^^^^^^ '° ^-^^^ -^ chiu. 



1. p. Thurberi, Gray. Flowers scattered, sessile, I^ lines in diameter: bracts 

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

 ovary : s igma 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. — PI. ihurb. 326 ; Torrey, liot. Mex. Bound. 207, t. 52 ; Hook. f. in DC 

 Prodr. xvii. 115. > , i x^kj. 



^mo^vV^TheTrin!? T" *^' ^'\ ^''" ^" ^^- ^"^°"^ {Thurhcr), on branches of Dalca 

 j^moryi. ine staminate llowers are unknown. 



Order XCIX. SANTALACE.^. 



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-cleftvalvate perianth adherent to the 1-celled 2 - 4-ovuled ovary, which be- 

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

 the periauth-Iobes, at the edge of an epigynous often lobed disk ; stvle 2 -Slobed • 

 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 temnerate and tron.Vnl 



Kr;t'ife'^r " '""'■ "''"- "" '■"'°"'"«' "■- »"-■ -" s™- " ".pSS',1 



1. COMANDEA, Nutt. Bastard Toad-flax. 

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

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

 linear lilaments ; 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, G to 15 inches high: loaves oblon- 

 Obtuse or acute, ^ to ^ inches long : umbels few-flowered, coryinbosely clustered at 



