1 78 Mr. J . Miers on the Affinities of the Olacaceae. 



is globular, quite smooth, vesicular, bursting irregularly, and so 

 thin is their texture, that the sporular granules can easily be 

 distinguished in them by transmitted light. All such species 

 will therefore constitute a group generically distinct from Vis- 

 cum, to which the name of Allobium may be given, from aXko?, 

 alius, /3l6co, vivo, in allusion to their deriving their support and 

 nourishment from other trees. As far as my observation extends, 

 many of the Asiatic species will be found to conform with the 

 same genus. On some future occasion I will give more in detail 

 the facts upon which I propose to separate from the Loranthacece, 

 the genera Viscum, Myzodendron, and Lepidoceras : respecting 

 Eubrachion and Ginalloa I cannot offer an opinion : Antidaphne 

 from Poppig^s description is evidently related to Loranthacece, as 

 well as Tupeia *, on account of the structure of the ovarium. 



It will be sufficient to remark at present, that in Loranthacece 

 the flowers are generally hermaphrodite ; the calyx, with a free and 

 entire margin, is adnate with the ovarium ; the petals are linear, 

 frequently very long ; the opposite stamens with lengthened fila- 

 ments are free or only partially adnate with the petals ; the an- 

 thers often versatile, always 2-lobed and 4-celled, bursting by 

 two longitudinal furrows ; the pollen is flattened, 3-lobed, and 

 marked by three lines radiating from the centre ; the ovarium is 

 unilocular with a single ovule suspended from the summit of its 

 cell ; and the embryo, with large fleshy cotyledons, almost fills the 

 cavity of the cell of the fruit, being covered with very thin albu- 

 men : finally they often form distinct trees, are frequently more 

 epiphytic than parasitic, and the inflorescence is generally pani- 

 culate, with numerous pedicelled flowers, often of great size and 

 brilliant colours. We perceive nothing like this in Viscum, My- 

 zodendron, or Lepidoceras, where the flowers are always very mi- 

 nute, either dioecious or monoecious, and generally imbedded in 

 decussate pairs in a fleshy spikelet. In the group I have called 

 Allobium, the structure of the flower corresponds with that of 

 most of the genera of the Santalacece, the calyx is obsolete, the 

 corolla or perigonium has three or four short and 3-angular 

 lobes, the sessile anthers already described are opposite to these 

 segments, and alternate with the lobes of an internal adnate disk ; 



* I have had an opportunity of examining the Tupeia Cunnmghamii, 

 which scarcely differs from the typical species, Viscum antarcticum, Forst. ; 

 it agrees with the characters assigned to it by Forster, Chamisso, and 

 Schlechtendahl (Linn. iii. 203), Richard (Voy. Astrol. p. 269), and Miquel 

 (Linn, xviii. 85). At the same time that it is in noway related to Viscum, 

 it quite accords with the Loranthacece, and agrees in every respect with the 

 Characters given in Endlicher's ' Gen. PI/ p. 802, of Spirostylis, a subgenus 

 proposed by Presl and adopted by Blume (DC. Prodr. iv. 315). This spe- 

 cies from Acapulco will therefore claim the name of Tupeia Ha'e'nckeana, 

 Spirostylis Haenckeana, Presl, the former genus being proposed in 1828, 

 the latter in 1829. 



