476 FLORA OF TEXAS. 



COMANDRA, Nutt. 



Floicers perfect ; calyx bell-shaped, 5-cleft, the persist- 

 ent lobes alternating with the lobes of the disk; stamens 

 5; anthers connected with the calyx-lobes by a tnft of 

 hairs; stigma capitate; /rzriY nut-like, 1-seeded. — Smooth 

 perennial herbs, with alternate leaves, and small green ish- 

 ^\niQ floicers, in axillary and terminal umbel-like peduncled 

 clusters. 



0. UMBELLATA, Nutt. Stem branching above; leaves 

 sessile, lanceolate or oblong; peduncles several, corymbose, 

 3-o-flowered, mostly longer than the leaves; style slender; 

 fruiting calyx urn-shaped. (Thesium umbellatum, L.) 

 Dry soil. April and May. Stem 8-10' high; leaves J'-l' 

 long. 



106. MISTLETOE FAMILY. Order, LoRANTHACEiE. 



Parasitical shrubby plants, with evergreen almost vein- 

 less leaves, without stipules, and perfect or dioecious^o?6'er5; 

 calyx of 2-8 sepals, distinct or united into a tube, valvate 

 in the bud, sometimes w^anting; stamens as many as the 

 sepals and opposite them; ovary 1-celled, commonly with 

 a single suspended ovule; style simple or none; fruit 

 berry-like; seeds anatropous; emhryo longer than the 

 fleshy albumen. 



PHORADENDRON, Nutt. Mistletoe. 



Floivers dioecious, iii short jointed spikes ; calyx of the 

 sterile flower globular, 2-4-lobed; anthers sessile at the 

 base of the lobes, transversely 2-celled ; calyx of the fertile 

 flower adnate to the ovary; s^/'^»m sessile ; Jer?'j/ globose, 

 pulpy, 1-seeded. — Evergreen shrubs, growing on the branch- 

 es of various trees, with brittle jointed stems, thick, per- 

 sistent leaves, and sm-dll flowers in axillary spikes. 



