340 LORANTHE^. 



Order LIX. LORANTHEvC. 



Jussieu & Richard, Annales du Museum, xii. 292 (1808). 



Evergreens, half -shrubby and parasitic on trees and shrubs; color 

 yellowish-green or yellow. Branches dichotomous; the joints swollen. 

 Leaves opposite, either coriaceous, or reduced to more or less distinctly 

 connate scales. Flowers (dioecious in our genera) of 2 — 5 sepals coherent 

 at base and valvate in aestivation, no petals; anthers as many as the 

 calyx-segments and (in ours) sessile upon them; ovary inferior, 1-celled, 

 1-ovuled, becoming a 1-seeded berry with glutinous epicarp. 



1. PHORADEXDRON, Nultall (Mistlktoe). Flowers globose, im- 

 bedded in the rachis of jointed spikes. Calyx 3- (rarely 2- or 4-) lobed. 

 Anthers sessile on the base of the lobes, 2-celled, opening by a pore or 

 slit; pollen-grains smooth. Stigma sessile, obtuse, entire or more or 

 less distinctly 2-lobed. Berry globose, pulpy, translucent, crowned with 

 the persistent calyx-lobes. Embryo with foliaceous cotyledons. 



* Leafy species; leaves dilated upwards. 



1. P. flayescens, Nutt. PI. Gamb. 185 (1848); Engelm. PI. Fendl. 58 

 (1849); Pursh, Fl. i. 114 (1814), under Viscum. V. leucocarpum, Raf. 

 Fl. Ludov. 79 (1817). Branches 1 ft. long or more, terete, pubescent 

 when young, usually of a light or yellowish green as also the foliage : 

 leaves oblanceolate to obovate and nearly orbicular, i^ — 2 in. long, 

 obtuse, 3-nerved, in age glabrous: bracts of the inflorescence connate 

 into a short truncate cup : H. depressed-globose, the calyx-lobes ciliate : 

 staminate spikes opposite or verticillate, usually shorter than the leaves, 

 3 — 7-jointed, the many fl. in 4 — 6 rows on each side, fragrant with the 

 odor of pond-lilies; anthers transverse, opening by 2 pores: pistillate 

 spikes mostly opposite, shorter tlian the staminate: berries white, 2 lines 

 thick. Var. yillosnm, Engelm. 1. c. P. viUosum, Nutt. 1. c. Leaves 

 smaller, spatulate to orbicular, permanently pubescent: spikes smaller. 

 — Parasitic on various exogenous trees in the interior of the State. 



2. P. BoUeauuiii, Engelm. Bot. Calif, ii. 105 (1880); Seem. Bot. 

 Herald, 295. t. 63 (1856), under Viscum. Branches ^o ft. long or less, 

 terete, puberulent when young: leaves very thick, spatulate to linear, 

 obtusish, nerveless, }-^ — 1 in. long: spikes opjjosite or in fours, with con- 

 nate minutely ciliate bracts; the staminate of two 6 — 12-flowered joints, 

 the fertile of a single 2-flowered joint: anthers transverse, opening by 

 pores: berry white, 1}^ lines thick. — From Placer and Lake counties 

 southward, chiefly on firs and junipers. 



* * Leaves reduced to short mostly connate scales. 



3. P. juiiiperinnin, Engelm.; Gray, PI. Fendl. 58 (1849). Branches 



