[Darbya A. Gray, Am. Journ. Sci. (II) 1: 388. 1846.] A low glabrous dioecious shrub, with opposite short-petioled, oblong to ovate entire leaves. Staminate flowers small, in axillary peduncled umbels; calyx top-shaped, 4-5-cleft, the lobes spreading, each with a tuft of wool; stamens as many as the calyx-segments and opposite them; disk crenate. Pistillate flowers solitary in the axils, short-peduncled; calyx narrowly top-shaped, 4-lobed; stamens 4; style short, 4-lobed; ovary adnate to the calyx. Fruit an oval 1-seeded drupe. [From the Greek name of Daphne.] A monotypic genus of the southeastern United States.

1. Nestronia Umbellula Raf. Nestronia

Fig. 1570

Nestonia umbellula Raf. New Flora 3: 13. 1836. Darbya umbellulata A. Gray, Am. Journ. Sci. (II.) 1: 388. 1846.

Shrub 1°-3° high, branching. Leaves thin, 1'-2' long, acute or obtuse at the apex, narrowed or rounded at the base, pinnately veined, bright green above, petioles 1"-3" long; peduncles of the staminate 3-9-flowered umbels filiform, nearly or quite one-half as long as the leaves, the pedicels about 2" long, equalling the green calyx; stamens shorter than the oblong-ovate calyx-segments; pistillate calyx glaucescent, about 3" long, the lobes much shorter than the tube; drupe globose, about 1/2' in diameter.

In woods and along streams, parasitic on tree-roots, Virginia to Georgia and Alabama. April-May.