4 90 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



GENERA. 



I. EL^EAGNEyE. 



1. Eleeagnus T. — Flowers regular, hermaphrodite or more rarely 

 polygamous ; receptacle cylindro-campanulate or tubular ; perianth 

 4- or more rarely 5-8-merous, valvate. Stamens 4 or 5—8, alter- 

 nating with and inserted below perianth-leaves ; filaments short free, 

 or nearly absent; anthers dorsifixed 2 -celled introrse 2-rimose. Disk 

 glandular, of variable form, inserted in throat of receptacle. Germen 

 free, inserted in and included by bottom of receptacle ; style simple, 

 passing out through narrow mouth of receptacle, longitudinally 

 furrowed ; apex straight curved or circinate, laterally stigmatiferous; 

 ovule 1, ascending anatropous ; micropyle inferior. Fruit enveloped in 

 persistent accrescent drupaceous receptacle ; pericarp dry thin inde- 

 hiscent ; seed erect ; embryo fleshy ; albumen small or ; radicle short 

 inferior. — Trees or shrubs, covered in almost every part with scurfy 

 or stellate hairs ; twigs often spinescent ; leaves alternate petiolate 

 entire exstipulate ; flowers axillary pedicellate, solitary or in few- 

 flowered cymes, more rarely in short axillary leafy racemes {North 

 America, southern Europe, temperate and southern Asia). See p. 481. 



2. Shepherdia Nutt. — Flowers dioecious ; receptacle in male 

 slightly concave, in female tubular-cupuliform. Perianth 4-merous, 

 valvate. Stamens, in female flower ; in male 8, 4 superposed to, 

 4 alternate with perianth-leaves ; filaments very short ; anthers in- 

 trorse 2-rimose. Glands 8, in male alternate with stamens, in female 

 inserted in throat of receptacle. Germen, in male ; in female 

 inserted in bottom of receptacle, free ; germen and ovule of Elaay- 

 nus ; style elongated acute, laterally stigmatiferous at apex. Fruit 

 dry 1 -seeded, enveloped in drupaceous receptacle. — Small trees or 

 shrubs, scurfy sometimes spinescent ; leaves opposite ; flowers pre- 

 cocious, forming small racemes at base of short lateral twigs ; male 

 flowers pedicellate in axils of bracts ; females in axils of opposite 

 leaves {North America). See p. 4S3. 



