THE LOEANTHACEJE OF CEYLON. 97 



quoted, and show that the excellent account given by Pitra * of the distribution of seeds 

 of Viscum album, Linn., might also do duty for the Loranths; but as it is doubtful whether 

 there is on record an account of observations on the seed-distribution of tropical Loran- 

 thaceae, I venture to describe those made by myself. I feel further justification for so 

 doing, inasmuch as the following passage finds a place in the English edition of Kerner's 

 ' Pflanzenleben ' : — 



" The dissemination of the European Mistletoe is effected, as in all the other Loran- 

 thacese, through the agency of birds — thrushes in particular — which feed upon the 

 berries and deposit the undigested seeds with their excrement upon the branches of 

 trees ... it is, however, true that the mature mistletoe-seeds are dispersed exclusively 

 by birds in the manner above mentioned ." f 



The berry-like fruits of these Loranths are, technically speaking, indehiscent; yet, owning 

 partly to grow th of the embryo, partly to the weakening of tlie fruit-wall, in some species, 

 this latter becomes ruptured on the ripening of the fruits, e. g. Loranthus neelgherrensis, 

 L. cuneatus ; in others a very slight pressure is sufficient to cause the complete extrusion 

 of the seed, sometimes basally, sometimes apically. In almost all cases the seed slips 

 out, but in Viscum orientale, Willd., a gentle pressure causes the fruit-wall to crack and 

 the seed to be jerked out. A glance at the figures {e.g. fig. 1. PI. X., tig. 12, PI. X., 

 fig. 6, PI. XI.) in the accompanying Plates shows that the fruits of Cingalese 

 Loranthaceae are comparatively large — often 2 cm. in length. 



On the other hand, the two birds which in Ceylon chiefly feed on the Loranthus 

 fruits are very small: one, Dicaum mimmnm=^Diccciim erythrorhynchum (Leggc), is the 

 smallest bird in Ceylon; the other is Pachyglossa vinceus (Jjegge) = Prio}iochilu8 vincens 

 (Murray), a flower-pecker peculiar to Ceylon. Of these, the former has, on account of 

 its assiduity in visiting Loranthus fruits, earned for itself in Ceylon the name of the 

 ' Parasite-bird.' 



The smallness of the bird and the largeness of tlie fruit may together constitute the 

 main reason why the bird has adopted — as w ill be shown — the habit of squeezing the 

 seed out of the fruit and rejecting the fruit-coat. The large quantity of tannin which 

 this fruit- coat contains may also have operated to produce this result. That the above- 

 mentioned birds have acquired the habit of extracting the seeds is shown by the following 

 observations. Under a tree, bearing a Loranthus bush in fruit, many empty husks are 

 to be found, and such husks bear V-shaped marks of birds' beaks. I have also seen a 

 bird, Dica3um minimum, perched on a Loranthus bush sucking a seed, having rejected 

 the husk. This proceeding is doubtless a very general one with birds. The ' Paddy- 

 bird ' in Ceylon extracts the rice-grain and leaves the husk ; and I have seen a Parrot 

 " shuck " a pea-pod, extract the peas, and reject the pod. 



Further, in none of the many birds I shot and dissected did the gut contain a fruit- 

 coat, though it was generally quite distended with the pulpy matter which had been 



* Adolph Pitra, " Ueber die Anheftuugsweise einiger phanerogamen Parasiten an ihre Nahrpflanzen," Bot. Zeit. 

 1861,110.91. 



t ' The Natural Histon- of Plant?,' Kerner, ed. F. W. Oliver, part 2, p. 205. 



