DAPHNOIDE^. 161 



DIVISION III, SYMPETAL^ PERIGYN^E. 



Petals united below, and, with the stamens, inserted on the calyx, 

 usually near its summit, the tube being more or less adherent to the 

 ovary (free from it in Daphnoidex). 



ORDER LIL DAPHNOIDE/E. 

 We have but one member, of the genus 



1. DIRCA, Linn. (LEATHERWOOD). Branching deciduous shrubs, 

 with smooth and very tenacious brown bark; the -wood also very tough 

 and flexible. Flowers in fascicles of about 3, appearing before the leaves, 

 but from the same buds, and these of yellowish or whitish very silky 

 caducous scales, which appear as an involucre to the flowers. Perianth 

 corolla-like, tubular, but slightly oblique, yellowish, nodding, 4-lobed. 

 Stamens 8, inserted at base of the perianth-tube, exserted; filaments fili- 

 form; anthers small, oblong. Ovary sessile, 1-celled; style longer than the 

 stamens. Perianth deciduous from the growing ovary, this becoming a 

 somewhat drupaceous small fruit. 



1. 1). occideutalis, Gray. Shrub 4 7 ft. high: bud scales densely 

 white-villous: leaves oval with rounded base, 1 3 in. long: perianth 

 canary-yellow, subsessile, 3 4 lines long, rather deeply 4-lobed, the lobes 

 nearly truncate, somewhat connivent, rendering the upper and broader 

 part of the organ slightly urceolate. On moist well shaded northward 

 slopes of the Oakland and Berkeley Hills; also in the counties of Marin 

 and San Mateo. Feb., March. 



ORDER LIII. LORANTHE/E, 



Half-shrubby parasites on trees and shrubs; color yellowish-green or 

 yellow. Branches dichotomous; the joints swollen. Leaves opposite, 

 either coriaceous, or reduced to more or less distinctly connate scales. 

 Flowers (dioecious in our genera) of 2 5 sepals coherent at base and 

 valvate in aestivation, no petals; anthers as many as the calyx-segments 

 and (in ours) sessile upon them; ovary inferior, 1-celled, 1-ovuled becom- 

 ing a 1-seeded berry with glutinous pulp. 



1. PHORADENDROX, Nutt. (MISTLETOE). Flowers globose, imbed- 

 ded in the rachis of jointed spikes. Calyx 3- (rarely 2- or 4-) lobed. 

 Anthers sessile on the base of the lobes, 2-celled, opening by a pore or 

 slit; pollen-grains smooth. Stigma sessile, obtuse, entire or more or 

 less distinctly 2-lobed. Berry globose, pulpy, translucent, crowned with 

 the persistent calyx-lobes. Embryo with foliaceous cotyledons. 



1. P. villosum, Nutt.. Stems much branched, ^1 ft. long, forming 

 spherical masses on the branches of deciduous trees : herbage of a deep 



