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III. Observations on the Loranthacese of Ceylon. By F. W. KeeblIt'^^., Frank 

 Smart Student, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. (Communicated by 

 Francis Darwin, F.B.S., F.L.S.) 



(Plates X. & XT.) 



Read 18th April, 1895. -^ 



Contents. 



Page 

 I. The Fertilization of the Flower 91 



II. Mode of Distribution of the Seeds 90 



III. Germination 99 



IV. The Curvature and Growth of the Hypocotyl of various Species of Loranths .... 104 



V. Effect of Contact on the Hypocotyl and on its Suctorial Disc 109 



Appendix : Forms of Fruits and Seeds of some Species of the Cingalese Loranthaceac . . 113 



The following paper places on record a number of observations made during a short 

 stay in Ceylon in 1894. It is my hope to supplement this by another contribution 

 dealing more particularly with the anatomical problems presented by some members 

 of the Loranthaceae liere treated of. 



Mv visit to Ceylon was rendered possible by a grant of money made to me by the 

 University of Cambridge from the Wortz fund. 



I beg to express my warmest thanks to Mr. Henry Trimen, the Director of the Royal 

 Botanical Garden of Peradeniya, wliose advice and assistance were invaluable ; also to 

 Mr. Prancis Darwin, who has, by his criticism, helped me considerably in the writing oi 

 this paper. 



I. — The Fertilization of the Flower. 



Many Cingalese members of the genus Loranthiis have large and conspicuous flowers ; 

 in such the corolla is brightly coloured, more or less tubular, and generally o-lobed 

 (figs. 1 c, 6, PI. X. ; 11, PI. X. • 3, 10, PI. XI.). 



Since certain deviations from the typical regularity of the corolla-tube occur, and 

 since these deviations have relations with the mode of fertilization of the flower, the 

 chief will now be enumerated : — 



L. loniccroides, Linn. : pink fleshy corolla, tube split less than in other species (thus 

 Hooker gives corolla split one third way down*) ; stamens form a ring roimd the pistil, 

 which in the open flower projects beyond them. 



L. capitellatus, Wight & Am. : the nearest ally to above species ; the lobes of the 

 corolla are carried further down the tube, which is consequently less marked. The ' Flora 

 of British India' gives corolla J-| in., funnel-shaped, cleft to or below the middle into 

 5-6 lobest ; here, too, the stamens form a ring round the pistil (fig. 10, PL XL). The 



• Hooker, Fl. Brit. India, vol. v. p. 221. t Loc. cit. 



SECOND SERIES. — BOTANY, VOL. V. O 



