Genus 2. 



MISTLETOE FAMILY. 



6 39 



2. PHORADENDRON Nutt. Journ. Acad. Phila. (II.) 1: 185. 1847-50. 

 Shrubs, parasitic on trees, with opposite coriaceous flat entire or undulate faintly nerved 

 leaves, terete or angled, usually jointed and brittle twigs, and dioecious axillary spicate 

 bracted small flowers, solitary or several in the axil of each bract. Staminate flowers with 

 a 3-lobed (rarely 2-4-lobed) globose or ovoid calyx, bearing a sessile transversely 2-celled 

 anther at the base of each lobe. Pistillate flowers with a similar calyx adnate to the ovoid 

 inferior ovary. Style none or very short, stigma obtuse or capitate. Fruit a sessile ovoid 

 or globose fleshy berry. Endosperm copious. [Greek, tree-thief, from its parasitic habit.] 



About 100 species, all American. Besides the following, 5 or 6 others occur in the western 

 states and 1 in Florida. Type species : Phoradendron californicum Nutt. 



i. Phoradendron flavescens (Pursh) 



Nutt. American Mistletoe. 



Fig. 1565. 



Viscum flavescens Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. 114. 18 14. 

 P. flavescens Nutt.; A. Gray, Man. Ed. 2, 383. 1856. 

 A branching glabrous or slightly pubescent 

 shrub, the twigs rather stout, terete, brittle at 

 the base. Leaves oblong or obovate, rounded 

 at the apex, narrowed into short petioles, 3-5- 

 nerved, entire, 1-2' long, 5"-io" wide, dark 

 green, coriaceous; petioles i"-4" long; spikes 

 solitary, or 2 or 3 together in the axils, linear, 

 shorter than the leaves; berry globose, white, 

 about 2" in diameter. 



Parasitic on deciduous leaved trees, notably on the 

 tupelo and red maple, central New Jersey to Ohio, 

 Indiana and Missouri, south to Florida, Texas and 

 New Mexico. May-July. 



Family 13. SANTALACEAE R. Br. Prodr. Fl. Nov. Holl. 1: 350. 1810 



Sandalwood Family. 



Herbs or shrubs (some exotic genera trees), with alternate or opposite entire 

 exstipulate leaves. Flowers clustered or solitary, axillary or terminal, perfect, 

 monoecious or dioecious, mostly greenish. Calyx adnate to the base of the 

 ovary, or to the disk, 3-6-lobed, the lobes valvate. Petals none. Stamens as 

 many as the calyx-lobes and inserted near their bases, or opposite them upon 

 the lobed or annular disk; filaments slender or short. Ovary i-celled; ovules 

 2-4, .pendulous from the summit of the central placenta ; style cylindric, conic 

 or sometimes none; stigma capitate. Fruit a drupe or nut. Seed 1, ovoid or 

 globose. Testa none ; endosperm copious, fleshy ; embryo small, apical. 



About 26 genera and 250 species, mostly of tropical distribution, a few in the temperate zones. 



Perennial herbs ; flowers perfect, cymose or solitary. 1. Comandra. 

 Shrubs ; flowers imperfect, mostly dioecious. 



Leaves alternate ; flowers racemose. 2. Pyrularia. 



Leaves opposite ; flowers umbellate or solitary. 3. Nestronia. 



i. COMANDRA Nutt. Gen. 1 : 157. 1818. 



Glabrous erect perennial herbs, some (or all?) parasitic on roots of other plants. Leaves 

 alternate, oblong, oval, lanceolate or linear, entire, pinnately veined. Flowers perfect, ter- 

 minal or axillary, rarely solitary, cymose, bractless. Calyx campanulate, the base of its 

 tube adnate to the ovary, its limb 5-lobed (rarely 4-lobed). Stamens 5, or rarely 4, inserted 

 at the base of the calyx-lobes and between the lobes of the disk, attached to the middle of 

 the lobes by tufts of hairs. Anthers ovate, 2-celled. Fruit drupaceous, globose or ovoid, 

 crowned by the persistent calyx. [Greek, referring to the hairy attachments of the anthers.] 

 Four known species, the following North American, one European. Type species: Comandra 

 umbellata (L.) Nutt. 

 Cymes mostly corymbose-clustered at the summit of the stem ; leaves acute, sessile ; style slender. 



Leaves oblong, green; fruit globose-urn-shaped. _ 1. C. umbellata. 



Leaves lanceolate or linear, glaucous ; fruit ovoid. 2. C. pallida. 



Peduncles few, axillary ; leaves oval, obtuse, short-petioled ; style short. 3. C. livida. 



