BOTANY. 143 
_ unisexual flowers sometimes none, or often simple (calyx), adnate to the 
ovary in the fertile flowers, three- to five-cleft in the sterile flowers ; in the 
perfect flowers double, viz. calyx adnate to the ovary; the limb entire or 
denticulate, or often obsolete. Corolla of three to four or eight petals, 
either distinct, or more or less coherent in a tube, inserted into’ the 
epigynous disk; zstivation valvate. Stamens equal in number with the 
petals and opposite them,.or as many as the segments of the calyx, and 
inserted upon them when the perianth is simple. Ovary one-celled, with a 
single suspended ovule; style simple, or none. Fruit baccate, one-celled, 
one-seeded. Seed anatropous ; the membranous testa often adhering to the 
walls of the fruit. Embryo in a superficial cavity of the fleshy albumen ; 
radicle clavate, often exserted; cotyledons obtuse, sometimes connate. 
Parasitical, half-shrubby, evergreen plants, with dichotomous stems. Leaves 
mostly opposite, fleshy or coriaceous, almost veinless; sometimes reduced 
to scales or entirely wanting. Stipules none. Flowers unisexual and 
small (whitish or greenish yellow), or perfect and very showy. 
Many of the plants are tropical, and hang from the trunks and branches 
of trees; others occur in temperate regions. Lindley gives 23 genera and 
412 species, of which two genera, Viscum and Arceuthobium, with three 
species, are North American. Viscum album is the mistletoe of English 
writers. 
Sub-class 3. Calyciflore. 
In this division are included the polypetalous orders of Jussieu, in which 
the stamens are not hypogynous, as well as some diclinous orders. A calyx 
and corolla are present; in other words, the plants are dichlamydeous, the 
petals are distinct, and the stamens are attached to the calyx, being thus 
more or less perigynous. ‘This sub-class, along with Thalamiflore, com- 
prises the Dialypetalee of Endlicher. De Candolle included in this division 
gamopetalous plants, in which the ovary is inferior. 
Orver 123. Cornaces, the Dogwood Family. Calix, four-lobed. Petal- 
four, oblong, broad at the base, regular, inserted into the upper part of the 
calycine tube ; zstivation valvate. Stamens four, inserted along with the 
petals, and alternate with them; anthers dithecal. Ovary adherent to the 
tube of the calyx, two-celled, crowned by a disk ; ovules solitary, pendulous, 
anatropal; style filiform; stigma simple. Fruit fleshy, crowned by the 
limb of the calyx, two-celled, rarely one-celled by abortion ; endocarp bony. 
Seeds solitary, pendulous; embryo straight, long in the axis of fleshy 
albumen; radicle superior, shorter than the oblong cotyledons. Trees, 
shrubs, or herbs, with opposite, very rarely alternate, exstipulate leaves, and 
capitate, umbellate, or corymbose flowers. They inhabit the temperate 
climates of Europe, Asia, and America. The most prominent North 
American species of this family is Cornus florida, or the Dog wood, a showy 
member of our forests. Lindley enumerates nine genera and forty species, 
of which but one genus (Cornus), with eleven species, belongs to North 
America. 
143 
