OLEASTER FAMILY 



covers pedicels, petioles and twigs as well. This gives 

 the bush a very decorative effect, clothed as it is in 

 grayish white, among the surrounding green. 



The flowers appear during April and May in small, 

 compact clusters at the axils of last year's leaves. They 

 are not especially beautiful, but by their numbers they 

 make the plant attractive at the flowering season. 

 The fruit is scarlet or crimson, the size of currants, 

 and often so abundant as to redden the entire bush ; in 

 flavor an agreeable acid, just a trifle astringent. 



The difliculty in cultivating the plant for its fruit 

 lies in the fact that it is dioecious ; both pistillate and 

 staminate bushes are essential to success. 



CANADIAN BUFFALO-BERRY 



Lepargyraa canadensis. Shcpherdia canadensis. 



A thornless shrub, .three to eight feet high ; the young shoots 

 brown scurfy, later becoming white ; found on gravelly banks 

 and sterile soils where little else will thrive. Ranges from New- 

 foundland to Alaska, southward to Maine, New York, Michigan 

 and Utah. Hardy in its native wilds under very adverse condi- 

 tions ; but difficult to transplant. 



Leaves. — -()pi)osite, ovate or oval, one to two inches long, 

 pointed at base, margin entire, obtuse at apex. Somewhat sil- 

 very-stellate-pubescent above, densely so beneath ; often much 

 of this pubescence is brown. Petioles short, also stellate-pu- 

 bescent. 



Flowers. — April, June. Small, dioecious, yellowish, borne in 

 clusters at the axils of last year's leaves. Staminate flowers with 

 a four-parted perianth and eight stamens. Pistillate flowers 

 with a four-lobed periantli, bearing an eight-lobed disk at its 

 mouth which nearly closes it ; style somewhat exserted. 



/77///.— Drupe-like, oval, red or yellowish, about a quarter oJ 

 •an inch long, the flesh insipid. July, August. 



432 



