OTHER LORANTHACE.E 



227 



which suckers penetrate shoots of the host or even other 

 branches of the parasite itself. On reaching the wood these 

 suckers splay out to form an absorbing disc in contact with 

 the wood, and this in its turn sends absorptive filaments 

 into the medullary rays. Finally, some twining species of 

 Struthanthus produce suckers directly from the stem. 



The securing of the seed to the host by a viscid layer 

 of the fruit wall is universal in the family. Keeble (1895) 

 states that the fruits of Singalese species of Viscum and 

 Loranthus are greedily sought by small birds, which extract 

 the pulp and wipe the seeds off their bills on to branches : 

 " On the single telegraph line there are every year hundreds 



Fig. 26. — Rosa de Palo ; the cup formed by the host at the point of 

 attachment of a Phoradendron. J nat. size. 



of seedlings of Loranthus loniceroides, all in early stages of 

 germination. It can hardly be supposed that the seeds 

 arrive in this anomalous position as a consequence of being 

 voided, but rather that the birds free their beaks of them 

 by striking or rubbing against the wire." In some 

 Loranthaceae the fruit is explosive ; the swelling of a 

 mucilaginous layer expands the outer wall, the fruit breaks 

 off, and the seed is then expelled. Peirce (1905) found 

 the seeds of Arceuthobium occidentale, parasitic on the 

 Monterey Pine, to be flicked to a distance of 15 to 25 ft. 

 Explosive fruits were described by Johnstone (1888) for 

 A. oxycedri. According to McLuckie (1923) the fruit of 



