SANDALWOOD FAMILY. Santalaceac. 



SANDALWOOD FAMILY. Santaloceae. 



This is a very small family in this country, for the} 

 prefer the tropics, and in those regions some are trees. 

 Ours are usually parasitic on the roots of their neighbors. 

 They have toothless, mostly alternate leaves, mostly 

 without leaf-stalks or stipules, and small flowers, with a 

 four- or five-lobed calyx and no corolla. The four or five 

 stamens are opposite the calyx lobes, at the edge of a 

 fleshy disk, and the ovary is one-celled and inferior, with 

 one style, developing into a one-seeded fruit. 



There are four kinds of Comandra, one of them European; 

 smooth, perennial herbs, with alternate leaves, and flowers 

 in clusters, without bracts. The calyx is more or less 

 bell-shaped, usually with five lobes, its tube lined with a 

 disk, the stamens inserted at base of the lobes and the 

 anthers attached to the lobes by tufts of hairs. 



This is a rather pretty plant, growing 

 Pale Comandra . ' & 



Comandra pdllida from a few mches to about a foot talL 



Flesh-color, branching and rather woody below, with 



greenish, purplish pale-green, smooth, slightly thickish, 

 Spring, summer rather stiff i ea ves, which are reduced to 

 Northwest, Nev., 



Utah, Ariz. pinkish scales on the lower stem. The 



flowers are small, usually flesh-color, 

 thickish in texture, with slender pedicels, and form ter- 

 minal, rather flat-topped clusters. The fruit, which is 

 about the size of a small pea, is crowned by the remains of 

 the calyx, like a rose-hip. This is common on dry plains 

 and hillsides and is noticeable because of its pale and 

 somewhat peculiar coloring. 



