1 48 THE SANDALWOOD FAMILY. 



top-shaped with four or five rounded segments. Stamens: four or five ; short. 

 Pistillate Jlozvers: solitary; axillary, their tubes long and lobes very short ; glaucous. 

 Drupe: globose; reddish purple. Leaves: small; opposite with slender petioles 

 oblong or ovate; entire ; pinnately-veined ; thin ; bright green above, paler below; 

 glabrous on both sides. A low branching shrub, one to three feet high, parasitic. 



Growing- in woods that border streams, or those composed of pines 

 we sometimes find this plant which is the representative of a monotypic 

 genus of the southeastern United States. Usually it is parasitic on the 

 roots of the yellow pine,Pinus echinata, or other species of pines and es- 

 pecially it has a fondness for the black oak.Ouercus velutina. 



BUFFALO=NUT. OIL=NUT. RABBIT=WOOD. 



Pyruldria piiber'a. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Sandalwood. Greenish. Scentless. Georgia to Pennsylvania. JLiy. 



Floruers : tiny; dioecious; both sorts growing in terminal racemes. Staminate 

 racemes : compact, with m iny flowers, their calyxes being from three to five cleft. 

 Pistillate racemes: short with few flowers the calyxes of which are top-shaped and 

 adnate to the ovary. Fruit: a pear-shaped, fleshy drupe, showing at its apex the 

 five calyx-lobes. Leaves: alternate; oblong or obovate, pointed at the apex and 

 rounded or tapering into the petiole at the base ; entire; thin ; especially jjubescent 

 underneath when young. A parasitic shrub, two to fifteen feet high with greyish 

 branches. 



In Cherokee County, Georgia, this straggling shrub was discovered by 

 the elder Michaux, when he was making his first visit to the mountains. It 

 there grew in rich, shaded soil. While its bloom is most insignificant, the 

 leaves are very attractive and its curious fruit, similar in shape to that of a 

 pear, has suggested its generic name. Not until the buffalo-nut had been 

 experimented with at Biltmore was it successfully propagated, but the like 

 experience there concerning buckleya furnished a strong clue to its being of 

 parasitic nature. For its hosts it selects often the roots of the strawberry 

 shrub, Butueria fertilis, on which it sometimes wreaks great harm. It is, 

 however, by no means restricted to this species. The endosperm of the seed 

 is very oily while the roots are marked by their disagreeable odour. 



By the mountaineers the plant seems to be wholly known as the " rabbit- 

 wood," for these animals gnaw its bark to such an extent that it is quite un- 

 usual to find one which has not been more or less peeled. 



