536 



SANTALACEAE. 



Family 12. SANTALACEAE R. Br. Prodr. Fl. Nov. Holl. i: 350. 1810. 



SAXDALWOOD FAMILY. 



Herbs or shrubs (some exotic genera trees), with alternate or opposite entire 

 exstipulate leaves. Flowers clustered or solitary, axillary or terminal, perfect, 

 monoecious or dioecious, mostly greenish. Calyx adnate to the base of the 

 ovary, or to the disk, 3-6-lobed, the lobes valvate. Petals none. Stamens as 

 many as the calyx-lobes and inserted near their bases, or opposite them upon 

 the lobed or annular disk; filaments slender or short. Ovary i -celled; ovules 

 2-4, pendulous from the summit of the central placenta; style cylindric, conic 

 or sometimes none; stigma capitate. Fruit a drupe or nut. Seed i, ovoid 

 or globose. Testa none; endosperm copious, fleshy; embryo small, apical. 



About 26 genera and 250 species, mostly of tropical distribution, a few in the temperate zones. 

 Perennial herbs: flowers perfect, cymose or solitary. i. Comandra. 



Shrub; flowers imperfect, mostly dioecious, racemose. 2. Pyrnlaria. 



i. COMANDRA Xutt. Gen. i: 157. 1818. 



Glabrous erect perennial herbs, some (or all?) parasitic on roots of other plants. Leaves 

 alternate, oblong, oval, lanceolate or linear, entire, piunately veined. Flowers perfect, ter- 

 minal or axillary, rarely solitary, cymose, bractless. Calyx campanulate, the base of its 

 tube adnate to the ovary, its limb 5-lobed (rarely 4-lobed). Stamens 5, or rarely 4, inserted 

 at the bases of the calyx-lobes and between the lobes of the disk, attached to the middle of 

 the lobes by tufts of hairs. Anthers ovate, 2-celled. Fruit drupaceous, globose or ovoid, 

 crowned by the persistent calyx. [Greek, referring to the hairy attachments of the anthers.] 



Four known species, the following North American, one European. 

 Cymes mostly corymbose-clustered at the summit of the stem; leaves acute, sessile; style slender. 



Leaves oblong, pale green ; fruit globose-urn-shaped. i. C. ~ nmbellata. 



Leaves lanceolate or linear, glaucous; fruit ovoid. 2. C. pallida. 



Peduncles few, axillary; leaves oval, obtuse, short-petioled; style short. 3. C. livida. 



i. Comandra umbellata (L,.) Nutt. 



Bastard Toad-flax. (Fig. 1273.) 

 Thesium umbellatum L. Sp. PI. 208. 1753. 

 Comandra umbellata Nutt. Gen. i: 157. 1818. 



Stem slender, very leafy, usually branched, 6'-i8' 

 tall. Leayes oblong or oblong-lanceolate, pale 

 green, acute or subacute at both ends, sessile, as- 

 cending, >2 / -i/^ / long, the lower smaller; cymes 

 several-flowered, corymbose at the summit of the 

 plant or also axillary; peduncles filiform, .V'-i' 

 long; pedicels very short; calyx greenish-white or 

 purplish, about 2" high; style slender; drupe glo- 

 bose, 2> // -3 // in diameter, crowned by the upper 

 part of the calyx -tube and its 5 oblong lobes. 



In dry fields and thickets, Cape Breton Island to On- 

 tario and British Columbia, south to Georgia. Arizona 

 and California. April-July. 



2. Comandra pallida A. DC. Pale 

 Comandra. (Fig. 1274.) 



Comandra pallida A. DC. Prodr. 14: 636. 1857. 



Similar to the preceding species but paler and 

 glaucous, usually much branched, the leaves nar- 

 rower, linear or linear-lanceolate, acute or the low- 

 est and those of the stem oblong-elliptic; cymes 

 few-several-flowered, corymbose-clustered at the 

 summit; peduncles usually short; pedicels about i" 

 long; calyx purplish, about -2" high; fruit ovoid- 

 oblong, 3 // -4 // high and 2"-2>" in diameter, 

 crowned by the short upper part of the calyx-tube 

 and its 5 oblong lobes. 



In dry soil, Manitoba to British Columbia, south to 

 Minnesota, Kansas, Texas, New Mexico and California. 

 April-July. 





