102 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



The order Loraiithacece is usually included in 

 natural systems among the Apetalse — that con- 

 glomeration of genera into which, as a kind of 

 limbo, are thrust those Dicotyledons which have 

 not made their relationships and connections plain 

 to botanists. Sometimes it is stowed away among 

 the Calyciflorse. In the recent system of classifi- 

 cation which Sachs gives in his Text-book, and 

 which is largely based on Braun's Uehersicht des 

 natur'lichen Systems and Hanstein's Uehersicht des 

 natitrlicheyi Pflanzensy stems, the Loranthacece are 

 left virtually outside the pale of classification, along 

 with a dozen other groups, as " families of unknown 

 or very doubtful afiinity." The order aj)pears to be 

 nearly allied to the Saiitalacece, but this fact helps 

 us little, as that is also one of the "families" of 

 which the affinities are as yet unknown. 



The plant is dioecious, and the specimens seen 

 here so profusely at Christmas are invariably berry- 

 bearing. Green flowers appear in early spring in 

 the axils of the leaves. The male ones have four 

 anthers with a peculiar many-celled development, 

 that open by pores, and are adherent to the sur- 

 face of four calycine sepals. The female ones have 

 sessile stigmas, and the development of the embryo- 

 sac is very peculiar. The appearance of the ovary 

 has led to its being termed a solid ovary or a 

 naked ovule. Sachs, in his Text-book, explains this 

 as follows : " In Loranthacece the development does 

 not even proceed so far as the formation of a dis- 

 tinctly differentiated ovule ; the growth of the apex 

 of the floral axis ceases as soon as the carpels 

 begin to be formed ; and the cohesion of these is 

 such that it is scarcely possible to speak of a cavity 

 of the ovary; the formation of the embryo-sac in 

 the axial part of the tissue of the inferior ovary 

 is the only indication that this spot corresponds to 

 the ovule : and since more than one embryo-sac is 

 formed, it still remains doubtful whether the mass 

 of tissue must be regarded as the equivalent of 



