Loranthus] cxiii. loranthace^. 927 



contrast. The species of Loranthus mostly prefer partial shade, 

 while some like a denser shade and others again full light. 

 Welwitsch suggested that an attempt should be made to cultivate 

 the fine-flowered species of Loranthus on small orange or fig-trees ; 

 the berries could be easily introduced from the west coast of 

 Africa, or they might there, (say) in Sierra Leone or Lagos, be 

 planted on small species of Ficus, which these parasites especially 

 affect, and they might then be forwarded together with the 

 matrix in Wardian cases to Europe. 



The most m.agniticent species of Loixmthus are those which 

 grow on Acacia and Tamarix trees, on account of the great 

 contrast between the colour and foliage of the hosts and their 

 parasites : for instance, L. Gilgii about LopoUo on a species of 

 Acacia with yellow flower-heads and a fine pubescence, and 

 L. cinereus and L. Meyeri in Mossamedes on Tamarix orientalis 

 Forsk. Sometimes, though rarely, a Loranthus grew in large 

 masses on most of the trees of an extensive forest; such an 

 occurrence was observed in February 1855, in Golungo Alto, 

 where a forest was covered as it were with a cherry-coloured 

 mat, all the tree-tops being overgrown with the richly coloured 

 flowers of a Loranthus. 



See Welwitsch, Apontam. p. 553. n. 112 (1859), and in Gard. 

 Chron. 1871, p. 835 (1 July). 



1. LORANTHUS Vaill., L. ; Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. Pi. iii. p. 207. 

 Sycophila Welw. ex Van Tieghem in Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr. xli. 

 p. 485 (Sept. 1894). Aarostachys Yan Tieghem, l.c.^ p. 504. 

 Agelanthus Van Tieghem, ^.c, xlii. p. 24G (June 1895). Onco- 

 calyx Van Tieghem, I.e., xlii. p. 258 (June 1895). Phragmanthera 

 Van Tieghem, I.e., p. 261. Metula Van' Tieghem, I.e., p. 263. 

 Septimetula Van Tieghem, I.e., p. 266. Tapinanthus Van Tieghem, 

 I.e., p. 267. Acrostephanus Van Tieghem, I.e., p. 267. 



1. L. combretoides Engl. Nat. Pflanzenfam., Nachtrag, p. 128 

 (1897). 



Sycophila eomhretoides Welw. ex Van Tieghem, I.e., xli. p. 486. 

 L. Mannii, var. combretoideus Engl. Bot. Jahrb. xx. p. 81 (16 Nov. 

 1894), non Oliv. 



PuNGO Andongo. — Sarmentose-scandent, with the habit of a Com- 

 hretum ; branches 6 ft. long, hanging down and waving in garlands ; 

 flowers fleshy-coriaceous, yellowish, tetramerous, racemose ; anthers 

 2-celled, the cells with several subsidiary cells, almost honeycombed. 

 On the island of Calemba, between Quisonde and Condo, in the river 

 Cuanza ; growing on the long pendulous sarmentose branches, scarcely 

 as thick as a finger, of Ficus pendida Welw. ex Van Tieghem., I.e., 

 p. 486, Welw. herb. no. 6359 ; fl. March 1857. No. 4852. 



2. L. Welwitschii Engl. Bot. Jahrb. xx. p. 87, t. 1, fig. B. (16 

 Nov. 1894). 



Oneoealyx Welwitschii Van Tieghem in Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr. xlii 

 p. 740 (1896). 

 Mossamedes. — A shrublet, 1 to 2^ ft. high, branched from the base ; 



