ASARALES.] 



LORANTHACEiE. 



791 



colour. This at one, or two, and subsequently at various points, adheres to the support 

 by means of sucker-like productions, which are precisely similar in stinicture and mode 

 of attachment to the original seminal one." The fibres of the parasite never penetrate 

 beyond their original attachment ; in the adult the sucker-bearing shoots frequently run 

 to a considerable distance, many plants being literally covered with parasites, all of wliich 

 have originated from one seed. "I have seen," says Mr. Griffith, "sueli shoots, which had 

 taken t^ieir course along a decayed 6ra«c/<, liecome replaced, and 7-c turn in (fiat, an I 

 may express it, of a imrt capable of affordinrj some noiiris/nncnt ! " The attacks of 

 Loranthus are not confined to branches or trunks. Mr. Griffith saw cases of their 

 having seized upon the leaf of a Guttifei-ous plant, and the succulent leaves of a Poly- 

 pody. Although not milky plants, yet they will occasionally establish themselves on 

 such as are so, as for example, on the Jac (Artocarpus integrifolia) ; "hence it is 

 obvious that they must have an eliminating power ;"and this is confirmed by the reports 

 of Chemists, who assure us that the wood of the ^Mistletoe when parasitic on the Api)le 

 tree, is fomul to contain twice as much potash, and five times as much i)hosphoric acid as 

 the wood of the foster tree. This is the more probable when we call to mind how 

 rapidly some Loranths rot away from their parent branch when it dies, leaving the 

 cellular matter of the latter in the form of huge furrowed and lobed plates which 

 embraced the parasite and held it fast in its place. Exceedingly curious sjiecimens of 

 this kind of growth have been brought to Em-ope from Guatemala, by Mr. Skinner. 



See Dutrochet Sui' la Motilite, for many curious experiments with Mistletoe. 



The Order seems to be equally dispersed through the equinoctial regions of both 

 Asia and America ; but on the continent of Africa to be much more rai'e, only 2 having 

 been yet described from equinoctial Africa, and 5 oi G from the Cape of Good Hope. 

 Two are named from the South Seas, and 1 from New Holland ; but this number 

 requires, no doubt, to be largely increased. Three only are known in Europe. Nuytsia 

 floribimda, a beautiful shrub, with very large thyrses of bright orange-coloured flowers, 

 is a singular instance of a plant of this parasitical Order growing upon the ground. 

 And such is the abundance of the orange-coloured blossoms, that the colonists at 

 King George's Sound compare it to a tree on fire ; hence it has gained the name 

 of Fire-tree. A second species (N. ligustrina, A . C.) was found by Mr. Cunningham 

 in 1817 in the more arid parts of the Blue Mountains west from Port Jackson. 



The bark is usually astringent, as in the ]\listletoe of the Oak. The berries contain 

 a viscid matter like bu'dlime, which is insoluble in water and alcohol. The most 

 remarkable quality that Loranths possess, however, is the power of rooting on the 

 wood of other plants, at whose expense they live. The habit of the common Mistletoe 

 gives an idea of those of all, except that in the genus Loranthus the calyx is tubular 

 and often richly coloured. In medicine they are of small moment ; the Mistletoe of 

 the Oak, consecrated by Druidical superstition, was the common Viscum album. Loran- 

 thus tetrandrus is used for dyeing black in Chile ; and some of them are employed in 

 Brazilian medicine as poultices, and even as antisyphilitics ; they are, however, of so 

 little moment, that Martins scarcely names them in his Brazihan Materia Medica. 



GENERA. 



Myzodendron, Sol. 



Misodendron, Endl. 



Angelopogon, Popp. 

 Antidaphne, FOpp. 

 Arceuthobium, Bieherst. 



Razoumowshia, Hoffm. 

 "Viscum, Toiirnef. 

 Ginalloa, Korth. 

 Tupeia, Cham, et Schl. 

 Loranthus, Linn. 



Lonicera, Plum. 



Helixanthera, Lour. 



Scurrula, Don. 



Notanthera, Don. 



Gaidendron, Don. 



Baratranthus, Korth. 



9 GlutaffO, Commers. 

 Dendropemon, Blum. 

 Lipotactes, Blum. 



I Phoenicanthemum, Blm. 

 Dendrophthoe, Mart. 



CidantMs, Endl. 

 Tapinanthus, Blum. 



Lichtenstcinia, Wendl. 



Moqninia, Spreng. f. 

 Loxanthera, Blum. 

 Psittacanthus, Mart. 



Trygonanthus, Endl. 



Numbers. Gen. 23. Sp. 412. 



Position. — Santalacece. 



Protcarcce. 



-LoRANTHACE.i:. 



CornaccoB. 



Phthirusa, Mart. 

 Elythranthe, Mart. 

 Macrosolen, Blum. 

 Tristerix, Mart. 

 Spirostylis, ProV. , 

 Struthanthus, Mart. 

 Lepeostegercs, Bhnn. 

 Tolypanthus, Blum. 

 Nuytsia, R. Br. 



