454 THE SANDALWOOD FAMTLT. 



in axillary clusters, with a perianth of 2 small segments and 4 stamens ; the 

 females solitary, with a tubular periauth, minutely 2-lcfbed, which becomes 

 succulent, forming a berry round the true fruit. The reduced perianth and 

 clustered flowers show considerable afEnity with Gale in the Catkin family. 



1. Common Hippopliae. Hippophae rhamnoides, Linn. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 425. Sallow-Thorn. Sea- Buckthorn.) 



A willow-like shrub, covered with a scaly scurf, very close and silvery on 

 the under side of the leaves, thin or none on the upper side, dense, and 

 more or less rusty on the young shoot? and flowers, the axiUary shoots often 

 ending in a stout prickle. Leaves alternate, hnear, and entire. Male 

 flowers very small, in httle clusters resembling catkins. Females crowded, 

 although solitary in each axil ; the perianth about 2 lines long, contracted at 

 the top, with the style shortly protruding, forming when in fruit a small 

 yellowish or brown berry. 



In stony or sandy places, especially in beds of rivers and torrents, in 

 central and eastern Europe and central and Russian Asia, also occasionally 

 near the seacoasts of the Baltic and the North Sea. In Britain, very local, 

 and only near the seacoasts of some of the eastern counties of England. FL 

 spring. 



LXV. THE SANDALWOOD FAMILY. SANTALACE^. 



A family limited in Britain to a single species, but compris- 

 ing several exotic genera, chiefly tropical or southern, difl'eriug 

 from the Daphne family in the perianth combined with the 

 ovary at its base, in its valvate, not imbricate, lobes, and in 

 minute but important particulars in the structure of the 

 ovary. 



I. THESIUni. THESIUM. 



Low herbs or undershrubs, with alternate entire leaves, no stipules, and 

 small flowers. Perianth adhering to the ovary at the base ; the Umb di- 

 vided into 4 or 5 lobes or segments, valvate in the bud. Stamens 4 or 5, 

 opposite the lobes of the perianth. Ovary inferior, 1-ceUed, with 2 ovules 

 suspended from a central placenta. Style short, with a capitate stigma. 

 Fruit a small green nut, crovraed by the lobes of the perianth. Seed soUtary, 

 with a small, straight embryo in the top of the albumen. 



A considerable genus, widely spread over Europe and temperate Asia, 

 but chiefly abundant in southern Africa. ' Some of the European species 

 have been ascertained to be partially parasitical on the roots of other plants, 

 to which they attach themselves by means of expanded suckers, like the yel- 

 low Rattle and some others of the Serophularia famOy. 



1. Flax-leaved Thesium. Thesium linophylluia, Linn. 



(Eng. Bot. t. 247. T. hnmifumm, Bab. Man. Bastard Toadflax.) 



A glabrous, green perennial, forming a short, woody rootstock, with several 



annual, procumbent or ascending, stiff stems, usually simple, 6 or 8 inches 



long, but sometimes near a foot. Leaves narrow-linear, or, when very luxu- 



