Flowers diœcious; 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-shaped 4-cleft calyx, enclosing 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, formerly curator of the Liverpool Botanic Garden.)
1. S. Canadénsis, Nutt. Leaves elliptical or ovate, nearly naked and green above, silvery-downy and scurfy with rusty scales beneath; fruit yellowish-red, insipid.—Rocky or gravelly banks, Vt. and N. Y. to Mich., Minn., and north and westward. May.—Shrub 3–6° high, the branchlets, young leaves, yellowish flowers, etc., covered with rusty scales.
2. S. argéntea, Nutt. (Buffalo-Berry.) Somewhat thorny, 5–18° high; leaves cuneate-oblong, silvery on both sides; fruit ovoid, scarlet, acid and edible.—N. Minn. to Col., and westward.
Order 96. LORANTHÀCEÆ. (Mistletoe Family.)
Shrubby plants with coriaceous greenish foliage, parasitic on trees, represented in the northern temperate zone chiefly by the Mistletoe and its near allies; distinguished from the next family more by the parasitic growth and habit, and by the more reduced flowers, than by essential characters.
1. Phoradendron. Anthers 2-celled. Berry globose, pulpy. Leaves foliaceous.
2. Arceuthobium. Anthers a single orbicular cell. Berry compressed, fleshy. Leaves scale-like, connate.
1. PHORADÉNDRON, Nutt. False Mistletoe.
Flowers diœcious, in short catkin-like jointed spikes, usually several to each short fleshy bract or scale, and sunk in the joint. Calyx globular, 3- (rarely 2–4-) lobed; in the staminate flowers a sessile anther is borne on the base of each lobe, transversely 2-celled, each cell opening by a pore or slit; in the fertile flowers the calyx-tube adheres to the ovary; stigma sessile, obtuse. Berry 1-seeded, pulpy. Embryo small, half imbedded in the summit of mucilaginous albumen.—Yellowish-green woody parasites on the branches of trees, with jointed much-branched stems, thick and firm persistent leaves (or only scales in their place), and axillary small spikes of flowers. (Name composed of φώρ, a thief, and δένδρον, tree; from the parasitic habit.)
1. P. flavéscens, Nutt. (American Mistletoe.) Leaves obovate or oval, somewhat petioled, longer than the spikes, yellowish; berries white.—On various deciduous trees, N. J. to S. Ind., Mo., and southward.