CHAP. XCVII.

El^agna'ce^;. elasa'gnus.

1323

% E. h. 4 spiribsa; E. spinosa L. — Branches spiny. Leaves lanceolate.

Fruit insipid.

m 2. E. akge'ntea Ph. The silvery-feaaed Elasagnus, or Wild Olive Tree .

Identification. Pursh FI. Amer. Sept., I. p. 114.; Nutt. Gen. Amer., 1. p. 97.; Lodd. Cat. , ed. 1836.

Synonyme . Missouri Silver Tree, U. S. of N. Amer.

Engraving. Our Jig. 1204.

Spec. Char., §c. A shrub, from 8 ft. to 12 ft. high, not spiny. Leaveswaved, oval-oblong, rather acute, glabrous on both surfaces, and coveredwith silvery scales. Flowers aggregate, nodding. Sexes apparentlydioecious. Fruit roundish-ovate, of about the size of a small cherry, car-tilaginous, covered with silvery scales, having 8 grooves; the flesh dry,farinaceous, eatable; the nucule subcylindric, its exterior part consisting ofa tenacious woolly integument. A native of Hudson’s Bay, and found on the

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argillaceous broken banks of the Missouri , near Fort Mandan; flowering inJulyand August. (Nutt.) It was introduced in 1813. There are plants in theHorticultural Society’s Garden, and in the arboretum of Messrs. Loddiges.According to Pursh, Shepherdia argentea Nutt, resembles the Elaeagnusargentea Pursh so much, without the fruit, that, in this state, one mighteasily be mistaken for the other. In the Garden of the London HorticulturalSociety, the shrub or low tree bearing this name is very distinct from anyspecies of .Elaeagnus; but it differs from the species of that genus, in havingopposite leaves and branches. Whether it is the plant meant to be describedby Pursh, we are unable to determine; it is certainly not the E. argenteafigured in Watson’s JDendrologia, which appears to be E.orientalis.the flowersbeing produced on the current year’s wood. The plant which is in theHorticultural Society’s Garden, and which may be considered provisionallyas E. argentea, is one of very great neatness and beauty; and well deserving