SANTALACE^. (SANDALWOOD FAMILY.) 381 



1. SHEPHERDIA, Nntt. Shepherdia. 



Flowers dioecious ; the sterile with a 4-parted calyx (valvate in the bud) and 8 

 stamens, alternating with as many processes of the thick disk ; the fertile with 

 an urn-shaped 4-cleft calyx, enclosing the ovary (the orifice closed by the teeth 

 of the disk), and becoming berry-like in fruit. Style slender: stigma 1-sided. 

 — Leaves opposite, entire, deciduous ; the small flowers nearly sessile in their 

 axils on the branchlets, clustered, or the fertile solitary. (Named for John Shep- 

 herd, formerly curator of the Liverpool Botanic Garden.) 



1. S. CanadeoslS, Nutt. (Canadian Shbpheedia.) Leaves ellipti- 

 cal or ovate, nearly naked and green abo.ve, silvery-downy and scurfy with rusty 

 scales underneath ; fi-uit yellowish-red. — Rocky or gravelly banks, W. Vermont 

 to Wisconsin and northward. May. — A straggling shrub, 3° - 6° high ; the 

 branchlets, young leaves, yellowish flowers, &c., covered with the i-usty scales. 

 Fruit insipid. 



S. AKGENIBA, Nutt., the BurpALO-BisEEY of Upper Missouri, which has 

 nai-rower leaves, silvery on both sides, and edible, acid, scarlet fruit, is somewhat 

 cultivated for ornament. 



ELiEiGNUS AEGiiNTEA, Pursh, the Silvek-Berbt, may perhaps be found 

 within our northwestern limits. 



Order 96. SABJTAL.ACE.aE. (Sandalwood Family.) 



Herbs, shrubs, or trees, v)ith entire leaves; the i - 5-cleft calyx valvate in 

 Hie bud, its tube coherent ivith the 1-ceUed ovary, which contains 2-4 ovules 

 suspended from the apex of a staXk-like free central placenta which rises from 

 the base of the cell, but the (indehiscenf) fruit always 1-seeded. — Seed des- 

 titute of any proper seed-coat. Embryo small, at the apex of copious al- 

 bimien : radicle directed upward : cotyledons cylindrical. Stamens equal 

 in number to the lobes of the calyx, and inserted opposite them into the 

 edge of the fleshy disk at their base. Style 1. A small order, the greater 

 part belonging to warm regions, here represented only by the two follow- 

 ing genera. 



l. COMAIVDRA, Nutt. Bastaed Toad-plax. 



Flowers perfect. Calyx bell-shaped or soon um-shaped, lined above the 

 ovary with an adherent disk which has a 5-lobed free border. Stamens inserted 

 on the edge of the disk between its lobes, opposite the lobes of the calyx, to the 

 middle of which the anthers are connected by a tuft of tlu'eads. Fruit drupe- 

 like or nut-like, crowned by the persistent calyx-lobes, the cavity filled by the 

 globular seed. — Low and smooth perennials, with herbaceous stems from a 

 rather woody base or root, alternate oblong and sessile leaves, and greenish- 

 white flowers in terminal or axillary small umbel-like clusters. (Name from 

 Koiirj, hair, and avSpes, for stamens, in allusion to the hairs attached to the anthers. ) 



