LORANTHACE^E. (MISTLETOE FAMILY.) 449 



collate. (From \aia, the olive, and &yvos, sacred, the Greek name of the 

 Chaste-tree, Vitex Agnus-castus.) 



1. E. argentea, Pursh, (SILVER-BERRY.) A stoloniferous unarmed 

 shrub (6-12 high), the younger branches covered with ferruginous scales; 

 leaves elliptic to lanceolate, undulate, silvery-scurfy and more or less ferrugi- 

 nous ; flowers numerous, deflexed, silvery without, pale yellow within, fra- 

 grant; fruit scurfy, round-ovoid, dry and mealy, edible, 4-5" long. N. W. 

 Minn, to Utah and Montana. 



2. SHEPHERDIA, Nutt. 



Flowers dioecious; the sterile with a 4-parted calyx (valvate in the bud) and 

 8 stamens, alternating with as many processes of the thick disk ; the fertile 

 with an urn-shaped 4-cleft calyx, enclosing the ovary (the orifice closed by the 

 teeth of the disk), and becoming berry-like in fruit. Style slender ; stigma 

 1 -sided. Leaves opposite, entire, deciduous; the small flowers nearly sessile 

 in their axils on the branches, clustered, or the fertile solitary. (Named for 

 John Shepherd, formerly curator of the Liverpool Botanic Garden.) 



1. S. Canadtosis, Nutt. Leaves elliptical or ovate, nearly naked and 

 green above, silvery-downy and scurfy with rusty scales beneath ; fruit yel- 

 lowish-red, insipid. Rocky or gravelly banks, Vt. and N. Y. to Mich., Minn., 

 and north and westward. May. Shrub 3-6 high, the branchlets, young 

 leaves, yellowish flowers, etc., covered with rusty scales. 



2. S. argdntea, Nutt. (BUFFALO-BERRY.) Somewhat thorny, 5-18 

 high ; leaves cuneate-oblong, silvery on both sides ; fruit ovoid, scarlet, acid 

 and edible. N. Minn, to Col., and westward. 



ORDER 96. LORANTHACEJE. (MISTLETOE FAMILY.) 



Shrubby plants with coriaceous greenish foliage, parasitic on trees, repre- 

 sented in the northern temperate zone chiefly by the Mistletoe and its 

 near allies ; distinguished from the next family more by the parasitic 

 growth and habit, and by the more reduced flowers, than by essential 

 characters. 



1. Phoradendron. Anthers 2-celled. Berry globose, pulpy. Leaves foliaceous. 



2. Arceuthobium. Anthers a single orbicular cell. Berry compressed, fleshy. Leaves 



scale-like, connate. 



1 PHORADENDRON, Nutt. FALSE MISTLETOE. 



Flowers dioecious, in short catkin-like jointed spikes, usually several to each 

 short fleshy bract or scale, and sunk in the joint. Calyx globular, 3- (rarely 

 2 - 4-) lobed ; in the staminate flowers a sessile anther is borne on the base of 

 each lobe, transversely 2-celled, each cell opening by a pore or slit ; in the 

 fertile flowers the calyx-tube adheres to the ovary; stigma sessile, obtuse. 

 Berry 1 -seeded, pulpy. Embryo small, half imbedded in the summit of muci- 

 laginous albumen. Yellowish-green woody parasites on the branches of trees, 

 with jointed much-branched stems, thick and firm persistent leaves (or only 

 scales in their place), and axillary small spikes of flowers. (Name composed 

 of <p(6p, a thief, and 5^5poi/, tree ; from the parasitic habit.) 



