590 BLAEAGXACEAE (OLEASTEE FAMILY) 



1. D. paWstris L. (Wicopv.) Shrub, 1-2 m. high; the wood white, SDft, 

 and very brittle ; but the fibrous bark remarkably tough (used by the Indians 

 for thongs, whence the popular names). — Damp rich woods, N. B. to Ont., and 

 southw. Apr. 



2. dApHNE L. Mezereum 



Calyx salver-shaped or somewhat funnel-shaped. Anthers nearly sessile on 

 the calyx-tube. Stigma capitate. Drupe red. — Hardy low shrub. (Mytho- 

 loo-ical name of the nymph transformed by Apollo into a Laurel.) 



1 D. Mezereum L. Shrub, 3-9 dm. high, with purple-rose-colored (rarely 

 white) flowers, in lateral clusters on shoots of the preceding year, before the 

 lanceolate smooth leaves. — Escaped from cultivation, and locally established, 

 w. Que. and Ont. to Mass. and N. Y. Early spring. (Introd. from Eu.) 



ELAEAGNACEAE (Oleaster Family) 



Shrubs or small trees, with silvery-scurfy leaves and perfect or dioecious 

 flowers; further distinguished from the Mezereum Family by the erect or 

 ascending albuminous seed, and the calyx-tube which becomes pulpy and berry- 

 iike in fruit, strictly inclosing the achene. 



1. Elaeagnus. Flowers perfect. Stamens 4. Leaves alternate. 



2. Sbepherdia. Flowers dioecious. Stamens 8. Leaves opposite. 



1. ELAEAgNUS [Tourn.] L. 



Calyx cylindric-campanulate above the persistent cylindrical or globose base, 

 the limb valvately 4-cieft, deciduous. Stamens 4, in the throat. Style linear, 

 stigmatic on one side. Fruit drupe-like, with an ellipsoid 8-striate stone. — 

 Leaves alternate, entire and petioled, and flowers axillary and pedicellate. 

 (From i\a.ia, the olive, and ftyi-os, the Greek name of the Chaste-tree, Vitex 

 Agnus-castus.') 



1. E. arglntea Pursh. (Silverberry.) A stoloniferous unarmed shrub, 

 2-4 m. high, the younger branches covered with ferruginous scales ; leaves elliptic 

 to lanceolate, undulate, silvery-scurfy and more or less ferruginous ; flowers 

 numerous, deflexed, silvery without, pale yellow within, fragrant ; fruit Aund- 

 ovoid, dry and mealy, edible, 8-10 mm. long. — Bonaventure R., Que. (i'ost) ; 

 and from Isle of Orleans, Que., to Hudson Bay and B. C, s to Minn., S. Dak., 

 and Utah. 



2. SHEPH^HDIA Nutt. 



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-sha;ped 4-cleft calyx, inclosing 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 branches, clustered, or the fertile solitary. (Named for 

 John Shepherd, once curator of the Liverpool Botanic Garden.) Lepaugyrea 

 Raf. 



1. S. canadensis (L.) Nutt. Shrub, 1-2 m. high ; leaves elliptical or ovale, 

 nearly naked and green above, silvery-downy and scurfy with rusty scales 

 beneath ; fruit yellowish-red, nauseous. (^Lepargyrea Greene.) — Calcareous 

 rooks and banks, Nfd. to Alaska, s. to N. S., Me., Vt., n. and w. N. Y., Mich., 

 Wise, and along the Rocky Mts. to N. Mex. May. 



2. S. argfintea Nutt. (Buffalo Berry.) Somewhat thorny, 1-6 m. high j 

 leaves cuneate-oblong, silvery on both sides; fruit ovoid, scai-let, acid and edibie 

 {Lepargyrea Greene.) — Man. and n. Minn, to Kan., and westw 



