SANTALACE^:. (SANDALWOOD FAMILY.) 425 



1. S. Canad6nsis, Nutt. (CANADIAN SHEPHERDIA.) Leaves elliptical 

 or ovate, nearly naked and green above, silvery-downy and scurfy with rusty 

 scales underneath ; fruit yellowish-red, insipid. Rocky or gravelly banks, Ver- 

 mont to Wisconsin and northward. May. Shrub, 3 - 6 high ; the branch- 

 lets, young leaves, yellowish flowers', &c., covered with the rusty scales. 



2. S. arg^ntea, Nutt., the BUFFALO-BERRY of Upper Missouri, has nar- 

 rower leaves, tapering at base, silvery on both sides, and edible, acid, scarlet 

 fruit ; probably in Minnesota : sometimes cultivated. 



EL.EAGNUS ARGENTEA, Pursh, the SILVER-BERRY, with oval silvery leaves, 

 and silvery and mealy edible fruit, differing from Shepherdia in its perfect flow- 

 ers with only 4 stamens, abounds not far beyond our northwestern limits. 



ORDER 91. SANTALACE^E. (SANDALWOOD FAMILY.) 



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

 the bud, its' tube coherent with the 1-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 1-seeded. Seed des- 

 titute of any proper seed-coat. Embryo small, at the apex of copious al- 

 bumen : radicle directed upward : cotyledons cylindrical. Stamens 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, here represented only by the two follow- 

 ing genera. 



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 inserted 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 perennials, with herbaceous stems from a 

 rather woody base or root, alternate and almost sessile leaves, and greenish-white 

 flowers in terminal or axillary small umbel-like clusters. (Name from Kop.rj, 

 hair, and (ivSpfs, for stamens, in allusion to tlje hairs on the calyx-lobes which 

 are attached to the anthers.) 



1. C. umbellata, Nutt. Leaves oblong, pale (!' long) ; peduncles several 

 and corymbose-clustered at the summit of the stem, several-flowered ; calyx-tube con- 

 spicuously continued beyond the ovary, forming a neck to the globular-urn- 

 shaped fruit ; the lobes oblong; style slender ; fruit dry. Dry ground : common. 

 May, June. Stems 8' -10' high, very leafy. Root forming parasitic attach- 

 ments to the roots of trees (as shown by Mr. Staujfer). 



2. C. livida, Richardson. Peduncles axillary, 3 - 5-Jloivered, shorter than 

 the oval leaves ; calyx-tube not continued beyond the ovary, the lobes ovate ; style 

 short; fruit pulpy when ripe, red. Sandy shores of Lake Superior, and north- 

 ward. Leaves larger than in the last. 



