MR, D. OLIVER ON THE LORANTHACESR. 95 
L. punctulatum of Clos in Gay’s * Fl. Chilena’ (iii.163) having been 
separated by Prof. Grisebach. Clos ought not to have united the 
two species of Dr. Hooker; they look distinct, and are so held by 
Grisebach (Pfi. Phil. und Lechl. 23). The proportionally large 
embryo and reduced albumen in this genus, pointed out by Grise- 
bach and Hofmeister, offer a remarkable feature in the Order. I 
have seen nothing like it in allied, or indeed any Loranthacee. If 
I understand Hofmeister's figure rightly (Ann. Se. Nat. 4* scr. xii. 
t. 3. fig. 32), the membrane of the conical body g answers to the 
‘endocarp’ in Viscum of Decaisne, which he describes “sous la 
forme d'une pellicule verdátre..... parcourue par un réseau 
vasculaire," and is no part, I think, of the ovule proper, as Hof- 
meister regards it, although enclosing and (as in Viscum at first) 
entirely adnate with it*. 
Ihavealluded to the relations of the bud-scales, leaves, and bracts 
in Lepidoceras while speaking of Antidaphne. My attention was 
directed to them by the explanation which I stumbled upon of the 
remarkable scaly tips of the leaves from which the genus derives 
its appellation. The young 9 flowers are found in small axillary 
strobili formed of numerous dry imbricating scales. The outer- 
most and lowest of these scales, as in Antidaphne, are empty and 
truly cataphyllary ; the succeeding (hypsophyllary) scales subtend 
the flowers. These, however, are not caducous, as in that genus, but 
persistent. As the axis of the cone grows out, the hypsophyllary 
scales (bracts) become borne up on the apices of the euphyllary 
or ordinary leaves of the plant by the development of a true 
lamina continuously with the base of each. The scaly bracts per- 
sist, crowning the extremity of the leaves, sometimes separated 
from them by a constriction, whieh answers to the narrowed base 
* With regard to this so-called *endocarp, which in most species of Viscum 
and Phoradendron is readily separated from the rest of the ripe pericarp by 
simply squeezing the latter when separated from its peduncle, I feel inclined to 
believe that it has much in common with a corresponding layer, not however 
thus easily separable, in Gnetum, Welwitschia, Ephedra, and perhaps other 
Gymnosperms. In Visewm and Phoradendron (which appear to have the nucleus 
always more or less adnate to the wall of the ovary) we find this membrane sepa- 
rating the seed from the viscine cells of the pericarp, with which its outer surface 
is organically continuous. It is usually (?) traversed vertically by two principal 
conspicuous bundles of vessels, which often branch a little above. In many 
cases, however, more than two bundles traverse it: sometimes they are nume- 
rous and anastomose, as in V. album. When several are present, they may, 
sometimes at least, be found to converge at the base towards two opposite points. 
I hope to return to the consideration of this layer at a future time. 
