h 



ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY. 65 



thing down to the ovule tends to prove the value of Brown's remark, that Loranthaceae ar* 

 akm to f>roteaceae a 'lejr which I hope at no distant period to see fully made ou. l.y him nov? 

 that he IS preparing to publish the results of his own most extensive and valuable labours. 

 In the same letter, that most accomplished Botanist makes another remark of great value and 

 which should never be lost sight of though not always easy to be acted up.m. - Botanists, ha 



reniarks pub ish too much from dried specimens -a dried Z:oranM«« is generally a sealpd book » 

 I shdl close these re-marks with another extract from his Paper on Loranthv. nnd Fiscum an 

 essay which cannot be too extensively known or too deeply studied, as exhibiting the results 

 obtained m the course of a most patient and philosophical investigation on one of the most ub- 

 ■cure questions of botanical science— The formation of the ovule. 



" From what has been stated,^ it will appear that (he ovulum is, both in Lnranthu.^ and 

 y-iscum a. formation subsequent to impregnation This remarkable and, \ believe, unnaralled 

 fact, will tend materially to increase the difficulty of understandintr or even conjecturing the 

 nature of the first steps in the formation of an embryo. It is evident that it is at total 



vari- 



ance with the idea that the ovulum, or female organ, is a nidus adapted to, and necessary for 

 fhe development of the embryo, which in this view is supposed to be derived entirely and di- 

 rectly from the male. It is needless to add that it is totally different from the usual develoo- 



mtui of ovula. 



« V\ith respect to the first part of the process of development, I may observe that origi- 

 nal continuity of tissue is very general, and perhaps universal. And, in particular, I behevo 

 the nucleus of an ovulum to be ab origme solid : nhatever is produced subsequently in its in- 

 terior being developed in a cavity formed by an excavating process. 



. ,** ^^'^^''"&^ *^®^® *^»" ^« "o '^"u'*^ ^'"""i '»s structure and functions, that the fleshy body 

 in which the mature embryo is more or less contained is albumen, yet if may be proper to state 

 in what part of the tissue the necessary changft is carried on ; particularly since there is, I be- 

 lieve, no instance of albumen occurring as a primary formation. 



« The albumen in both these genera may, therefore, be classed with those albumina which 

 are developed in the tissue of the amnios and inclosed in an ordinary integument or integu- 

 ments, with this obvious difference, that in the subjects under consideration this body is naked. 

 ^t. y }y?^^ "_*" evident re8emblancej)etween the nipple-shaped process of f'hcnm, and tho 



ially when more than one embjro is 



de 



espe 



Geographical Distribution. 



dant in the tropical regions of Asia and 



merica, species of this order extend far beyond these limits, both north and south. 'J'he com- 

 mon Mistletoe ( Vificum album) is well known in Britain, and some others are natives of Europe. 

 The genus Loranthus is met with in Europe, America and every part of India, both on the 

 plains and mountains, extending from the Southern extremity of Ceylon, to a considerable 

 «J^evationon the Himalayas. On the highest tops of the Pulney mountains and also high on 

 the Neilgherries they are met with, but much less abundantly than on the plains and at lower 

 elevations on the hills. The genus Viscum also, abounds equally on the sea coast and the hills' 

 though from its species being fewer, it is not so common as Loranthus. 



Generally speaking they grow on nearly all trees though more common on some than 

 others. The Mangoe in some parts of the country is a favourite resort, so also are some 

 species of Acacia, and I have seen a Fiscum on a Loranthus : DeCandolte excepts lactescent 

 trees, which may perhaps be usually the case, but not always, as F have seen a Loranthus on a 

 Ficus and Mr. Griffith found one on the common Jack tree {Artocarpus in. tegri folia) which is 



lactescent. 



India and the Malayan Peninsula are said to produce 90 species. That such may be the 



case 



of the statement 



to great variat 

 pended 



ment, owing to the difficulty of determining the species : all of thena being so liable 

 iations, especially in their foliage, that characters taken from it can rarely be de- 



fruit. Attention to 



this circumslance led to the reduction of many species in our Prodromu?*. Othf»rs, it is pro- 



bable, may be discovered 



perfluous ones, which will 



free 



