Viscum. LORANTHACE, 379 
ginous. Embryo irregular in its direction, sometimes 2 or 3 in the same 
„Seed: extremity of the radicle often (always?) protruded beyond the albu- 
men.—Parasitical shrubs, growing on dicotyledonous trees, all (with one ex- 
ception) glabrous. Branches terete, tetragonal, or compressed, often jointed. 
Leaves opposite or rarely alternate, often wanting or reduced to a mere 
scale. Flowers fascicled, or in spikes. 
_So far as we can trust to our numerous observations on dried specimens, the direc- 
tion of the ovule and the situation of the hilum bear a relation to the position of the 
radicle, but neither are absolutely constant in the same species: thus in V. orientale 
the ovule goncraly arises from about the bottom of the cell, and the radicle points 
obliquely downwards; but in other specimens the latter points upwards. In Loran- 
thus the direction is probably more regular, the ovule being, we believe, constantly 
pendulous and the radicle superior. In one or two species of Visewm the anthers 
seemed to be 2-celled, as in Loranthus; but as the very few male flowers we have 
seen were obtained from monecious specimens, they may perhaps be of a different 
structure from others found on plants purely male : the calyx was present, nor did 
the flower-buds exhibit any difference from those of the female except in the pre- 
sence of anthers and absence of a stigma. Almost all the observations hitherto made 
on the structure of the flowers, ovarium, and fruit of this fenus, have been taken 
from the European species alone, and principally from V. album, so that much yet 
requires to be done in tropical countries to ascertain, by an examination of growing 
plants, if the generic characters hitherto given are common to all. 
1166. (1) V. orientale (Willd.:) stem and older branches terete and even; 
branches verticillate, or opposite, or dichotomous from the abortion of the 
central shoot ; younger ones furrowed or angled ; extreme ones often slightly 
compressed : leaves from narrow oblong to obovate, attenuated at the base, 
tapering or rounded at the apex, obtuse or slightly acute, flat, 3- (or in large 
specimens occasionally but rarely 5-) nerved; nerves (in the dried state) 
slightly prominent on both sides: peduncles axillary, 3-5-flowered : berry 
(purple) somewhat globose, copiously and very minutely dotted.— Willd. sp. 
4. p. 737 ; Cham. and Schlecht. in Linnea, 4. p. 200; DC. prod. 4. p. 278 ; 
Spr. syst. 1. p. 488 ; Wall.! L.n. 491; Wight! cat. n. 1219.— V. Heyneanum, 
ee l. c.—V. cruciatum, Sieb.—V. verticillatum, Roxb. fl. Ind. 3. p. 764 (not 
inn. ; 
‘ Ve variable as to the shape of the leaves and ramification. We have oc- 
sionally found male flowers on the same plant with the female. V.monoicum 
of Roxburgh (fl. Ind. 3. p. 763, or V. Benghalensis, Roxb. in E. I. C. mus. 
tab. 1181) is very closely allied, but differs by the leaves more constantly 
lanceolate and pointed, and often a little faleate, with in general 5 nerves, by 
the fascicles of flowers being sessile, by the flowers (generally in threes) in- 
serted in a transversely oblong concave common bractea or cup, the middle 
one being usually male, and by the berry oval-oblong: from it we cannot 
distinguish V. fuleatum, Wall. ! L. 492 ; nor does V. confertum, Roxb. fl. In 
3. p. 763 (judging by the short character given) appear to differ. 
1167. (2) V. verruculosum (W. & A.:) stem and older branches terete and 
even ; branches verticillate, or opposite, or dichotomous ; younger ones an- 
gled and furrowed : leaves from obovate and obtuse to oblong and a little 
acute, attenuated at the base, flat, 3- (or sometimes 5-) nerved ; nerves (in 
the dried specimen) a little prominent on both sides: peduncles axillary, 3- 
flowered : berries (very immature) linear-oblong, covered with little warts.— 
i od cat. n. 1220.— V. monoicum, Wight! in Wall.! L.n. 6875 (noi Roxb.) 
— Dindygul hills, about 3500 feet above the sea. à 
Dr Widi made the following memorandum when he collected the speci- 
mens: * Fruit long, slender, warty; lateral ones of each fascicle cernuous : 
leaves and plant very like V. orientale, of which it is perhaps a variety. 
1168. (3) V. Wallichianum (W. & ds :) stem and branches terete, swollen 
E AL the joints, verticillate, or dichotomous, or opposite: leaves flat, narrow 
