201 

 199. -LORANTH ACB^. 



West Indian " Mistletoe." 



NDER this order are classed several genera and many species 

 of destructive parasites which infest cultivated and forest 

 trees, in Trinidad and the neighbouring Islands. There is 

 no class however to which they appear to do more harm, than to plants 

 of the Citrus or Orange family ; for Orange trees, when plants of 

 Loranthus affix themselves, are speedily sapped of their vitality and 

 eventually destroyed. These pernicious plants also attack Terminalia 

 catajppa ; Casuarina ; Grevillea ; Cordia and many other native 

 and introduced trees. The determination of those species which are 

 indigenous to the West Indies is much hindered by the difficulty 

 which is experienced in drying the plants to a fit state for the 

 herbarium. The leaves and flowers and sometimes the branchlets 

 are articulated or jointed, and in the process of drying fall to pieces ; 

 and therefore much of the character of the plant is hopelessly lost 

 Grisebach names ten species under the genus Loranthus, nine species 

 under PJioraclendron and three under Arceuthohium, but several have 

 been named since his time. The Kew Index gives no less than 615 

 names under Loranthus which of course includes species from all parts 

 of the world. 



The plants, as represented in Trinidad, are true parasites, and iu 

 contradistinction to the Bromeliads or "wild pines," take their nourish- 

 ment direct from the trees to which they affix themselves. 



The distribution of these plants is effected for the most part by 

 the agency of birds which, feeding on the berries, drop the glu- 

 tinous seeds in situations whence they are able to affix themselves to 

 the bark of trees. It is evident therefore that to lessen th'e number 

 of plants Avhich produce seeds, should be the aim of the cultivator, 

 and they should be cut out as soon as seen, from the trees to which 

 they have affixed themselves, or they certainly will continue to become 

 the parent of numerous others, year after year. It is not sufficient 

 with many species, simply to cut off the branch of the parasite which 

 is growing on the host plant, but it is also necessary to cut away tlie 

 branch of the host itself : as several species have the power of starting 

 growth over and over again from the original point of attachment, 

 that species which attacks the orange being one of the number. The 

 species which with us is most common on Orange and other trees is 

 not accurately determined, but it appears to be near to the Peruvian 



