450 LORANTHACE^. (MISTLETOE FAMILY.) 



1. P. flav^SCens, Nutt. (AMERICAN MISTLETOE.} Leaves obovate or 

 oval, somewhat petioled, longer than the spikes, yellowish ; berries white. 

 On various deciduous trees, N. J. to S. Ind., Mo., and southward. 



2. ARCEUTHOBIUM, Bieb. 



Flowers axillary or terminal, solitary or several from the same axil. Calyx 

 mostly compressed ; the staminate usually 3-parted, the pistillate 2-toothed. 

 Anthers a single orbicular cell, opening by a circular slit. Berry compressed, 

 fleshy, on a short recurved pedicel. Parasitic on Conifers, glabrous, with 

 rectangular branches and connate scale-like leaves ; flowers often crowded in 

 apparent spikes or panicles, opening in summer or autumn and maturing fruit 

 the next autumn. (From &pKu6os, the juniper, and fttoi, life.) 



1. A. pus ilium, Peck. Very dwarf, the slender scattered or clustered 

 stems 3-10" high, usually simple, olive-green to chestnut; scales obtuse; 

 flowers solitary in most of the axils ; fruit narrowly oblong, 1 " long. On 

 Abies mgra; N. New York; Hanover, N. H. (Jesup).; Pocono Mt., Penn. 



ORDER 97. SANTALACEJE. (SANDALWOOD FAMILY.) 



Herbs, shrubs, or trees, with entire leaves ; the 4 - 5-cleft calyx valvate in 

 the bud, its tube coherent with the l-celled ovary, which contains 2-4 ovules 

 suspended from the apex of a stalk-like free central placenta which rises 

 from the base of the cell, but the (indehiscent) fruit always \-seeded. 

 Seed destitute of any proper seed-coat. Embryo small, at the apex of 

 copious albumen ; radicle directed upward ; cotyledons cylindrical. Sta- 

 mens equal in number to the lobes of the calyx, and inserted opposite 

 them into the edge of the fleshy disk at their base. Style 1. A small 

 order, the greater part belonging to warm regions. 



1. Comandra. Flowers perfect, in umbel-like clusters. Low herbaceous perennials. 



2. Pyrularia. Flowers dioecious or polygamous, in short spikes or racemes. Shrub. 



1. COMANDRA, Nutt. BASTARD TOAD-FLAX. 

 Flowers perfect. Calyx bell-shaped or soon urn-shaped, lined above the 

 ovary with an adherent disk which has a 5-lobed free border. Stamens in- 

 serted on the edge of the disk between its lobes, opposite the lobes of the calyx, 

 to the middle of which the anthers are connected by a tuft of thread-like hairs. 

 Fruit drupe-like or nut-like, crowned by the persistent calyx-lobes, the cavity 

 filled by the globular seed. Low and smooth (sometimes parasitic) perenni- 

 als, with herbaceous stems from a rather w r oody base or root, alternate and 

 almost sessile leaves, and greenish-white flowers in terminal or axillary small 

 umbel-like clusters. (Name from KO^TJ, hair, and fotipes, for stamens, in allu 

 sion to the hairs on the calyx-lobes which are attached to the anthers.) 



1. C. umbellata, Nutt. Stem 8-10' high, branched, very leafy; leaves 

 oblong, pale (V long) ; peduncles several and corymbose-clustered at the summit, 

 several-flowered; calyx-tube conspicuously continued as a neck to the dry 

 globular-urn-shaped fruit , the lobes oblong ; style slender- Dry ground, com- 

 mon. May, June. Root forming parasitic attachments to the roots of trees. 



2. C. pallida, A. DC. Leaves narrower, more glaucous and acuter, linear 

 to narrowly lanceolate (or those upon the main stem oblong), all acute or some- 



