CEBATOPHYLLACE^. (hORNWOET FAMILY.) 383 



(Name composed of ^up, a thief, and bivSpov, tree ; because these plants steal 

 their food from the trees they grow upon.) 



I. 1*. flavescens, Nutt. (Amekican Mistletoe.) Leaves oborate 

 or oval, somewhat petioled, longer than the spikes in their axils, yellowish ; 

 hemes white. (Viscum flavescens, Pursh.) — New Jersey to Illinois and south- 

 ward, preferring Elms and Hickories. April. 



Okdee 98. SAURURACEJE. (Lizaed's-tail Family.) 



Herbs, with jointed stems, alternate entire leaves imth stipules, and perfect 

 flowers in spikes, entirely destitute of any floral envelopes, and 3-5 more or 

 less united ovaries. — Ovules few, orthotropous. Embryo heart-shaped, 

 minute, contained in a little sac at the apex of the albumen. — A kind of 

 oiTshoot of the Pepper Family (tropical), and represented only by 



1. SAURtJKUS, L. Lizabd's-tail. 



Stamens mostly 6 or 7, hypogynons, with long and distinct filaments. Fmit 

 somewhat fleshy, wrinkled, of 3-4 pistils united at the base, with recurved 

 stigmas. Seeds usually solitary, ascending. — A perennial marsh herb, with 

 heart-shaped petioled leaves, and white flowers, each from the axil of a small 

 bract, crowded in a slender wand-like and naked peduncled terminal spike (its 

 appearance giving rise to the name, from travpos, a lizard, and ovpa, tail). 



1. S. cernuns, L. — Margins of ponds, &c. ; common. June. — Spike 

 8' - 6' long, drooping at the end. 



Oeder 99. CERATOPHYLL-ACE^. (Hoenwoet Fam.) 



Aquatic herbs, vxth whorled finely dissected leaves, and minute axillary and 

 sessile moncecious flowers without any floral envelopes, but with an 8-12- 

 clefi involucre in place of a calyx, the fertile a simple 1-celled ovary, with a 

 suspended orthotropous ovule : seed filled by a highly developed embryo uxth 

 4 cotyledons I and a conspicuous plumule. — Consists only of the genus 



1. CERATOPIIYL,L,UM, L. Hoknwokt. 



Sterile flowers of 12-24 stamens with large sessile anthers. Fruit an ache- 

 ninm, beaked ^vith the slender persistent style. — Herbs growing under v^ater, in 

 ponds or slow-flowing streams : the sessile leaves cut into thrice-forked thread- 

 like rather rigid divisions. (Name from xepas, a horn, and ^vXKov, leaf.) 



1. C. dcmvrsuin, L. — Var. coMMtiNB has a smooth marginless fruit 

 beaked with a long persistent style, and with a short spine or tubercle at the 

 base on each side. — Var. echinXtum (C. echinatum, Gray) has the fruit 

 mostly larger (3" long), rough-pimpled on the sides, the narrowly winged 

 margin spiny-toothed. — Slow streams and ponds ; common, but rare in fruit. 

 Probably there is only one species. (Eu.) 



