LXXV. GNETACEZ: E’PHEDRA. 937 
Height 3 ft. to 4ft. Introduced in 1714. Flowers, in sessile catkins, 
brownish ; March and April. 
The young branches are downy. Leaves alternate, oblong, linear; cut on 
each side into rounded and numerous lobes, like those of the ceterach; and 
sprinkled with shining dots, like those of the gales. This shrub is very hardy, 
but it requires peat earth and a shady situation. Propagated by layers, suck- 
ers, or seeds. The first and second methods are the most common, as good 
seeds can rarely be procured. 
Orpver LXXV. GNETACEZ. 
OrD. CHAR, Flowers unisexual, disposed in aments, which are involucrated 
by opposite or decussate connate scales. — Male flower with « 1-leaved 
perianth, which is transversely cleft at apex, and branched into 1- or many- 
anthered filaments ; cells of anthers separate or combined, each opening by 
a pore at apex.—Female flower composed of 2 connate scales. Ovarium 
l-celled, perforated at apex. Ovulum solitary. Fruit indehiscent, drupa- 
ceous. Albumen fleshy. (G. Don.) 
Leaves simple, opposite, exstipulate, caducous; linear, and _scale-like. 
Flowers in terminal catkins. — Shrubs evergreen, from the colour of the 
bark, with tubular jointed stems and branches. Natives of Europe, Asia, 
and Africa, Cultivated in sandy soil ; and propagated by division. 
Genus I. 
Lalla 
E’PHEDRA L. Tue Epruepra. Lin. Syst. Dice'cia Monadeélphia. 
Identification. Lin. Gen., 1136. ; N. Du Ham., 3. p. 17. : : 
Derivation. From ephedra, the Greek name for the Hipptris, or Horsetail, which it resembles. 
Gen. Char. See Ord. Char. 
Low shrubs ; evergreen, from the colour of the bark of their branches, and 
in that respect resembling the genera Casuarina and Equisétum. They are 
natives of the South of Europe, Barbary, and Siberia, on the sea-shore, or in 
saline or sandy wastes ; and they have been but little subjected to cultivation. 
According to Du Hamel, they bear the shears well, and form beautiful round 
balls, which may either be made to appear as if lying on the ground, or may 
be supported on a short stem. The lower sorts, Du Hamel continues, may 
be clipped to resemble turf; and for that purpose the plant may be valuable, 
in some parts of Australia and Africa, to form lawns which shall create an 
allusion to temperate climates. The saving by using such plants as E’phedra, 
which would require little or no watering, instead of a great deal, as the 
European grasses do in such a climate, would be very considerable. 
«7 1. E. pista’cuya L. The two-spiked Ephedra, Great shrubby Horse- 
tail, or Sea Grape. 
i ‘on. Lin. Sp., 1472.; Ait. Hort. Kew., ed. 1., 3. p. 16. : : 
elem ‘Ephedra vulgaris Rich. Mém. Conif. p. 2. t. 4. f.1.; Polfgonum marinum Tabern. 
Te 936.: P. damiifolium, &c., Bauh. Pin. 15. ; E’phedra maritima major Tourn. Inst. 663. ; Raisin 
de Mer, Ephédre multifiore, Fr.; Zweyahriger Ross Schwanz, Ger. 
h figured in Tabernemontanus, in Clusius, and in Richard. 
iad Se on Han, t 1, pl. 92.; Rich. Mém. Conif., t.4. f.1.; and our jigs. 1747. and 1748. 
of the natural size. 
Spec. Char., 5c. Peduncles opposite. Catkins twin. (Lin.) A small ever- 
