go BOTANICAL GAZETTE [AUGUST 
The observations of the earlier writers on the reproductive 
organs of the Loranthaceae were concerned chiefly with the mature 
flowers and the development of the fruit. Their interpretation of 
the different floral organs and the relation of these to each other 
show that they had a very meager understanding of these structures. 
Nevertheless, some of these observations show considerable accu- - 
racy and are therefore worthy of mention. eo 
-- WILLIAM GrirFiTH (10), in a paper read before the Linnaean 
Society of London in 1836, gave a brief description of the anatomy 
of the flowers and the development of the embryo in Loranthus 
scurrula. He asserted that the ovary is “intimately adherent” 
with the calyx and that some time after the “fall of the corolla a 
small cellular body appears attached at the base of the ovarian 
cavity.” This structure, which is an elongation of the floral axis, 
he interpreted as the rudiment of an ovule, at the center of which, 
in later stages of development of the fruit, an embryo appeared. 
In a second paper read before this same society in 1843, GRIFFITH 
(11) described the mature embryo sacs of Loranthus bicolor and 
Loranthus globosus, stating that he believed they existed even before 
pollination. He found a ‘“nipple-shaped process”’ at the base of the 
ovarian cavity and thought it might be a continuation of the floral 
axis. Not being sure of the homology of this process he limited 
his descriptions to the ovules, which he called embryo sacs, their 
relations to the pollen tubes, and the subsequent changes in them. 
His main conclusions are that the ovules in this genus are reduced 
to embryo sacs, and that “the embryo is a growth from the ends 
of the continuations of the pollen tubes, outside the anterior ends 
of the embryo sacs.” 
SCHLEIDEN (31) regarded the flowers of the Loranthaceae, 
which he studied in Viscum album and Loranthus sp.; as the ‘“‘sim- 
plest that can.exist.”’ He asserts that the two pairs of bracts of 
. the Perianth which bear the stamens are “metamorphosed into 
rea and the segments of the perianth in the carpellate flower 
is bir of a calyx.” According to him the fioral axis 
St ng re — the sepals, forming a nucellus or ovulum 
ab ‘ r ermore, the tip of the nucellus constitutes a stigma, 
vhich the pollen grains are deposited and into the tissue of which 


