618 LORANTHACEA:. (Loranthus. 
1, LORANTHUS, Linn. 
Parasitic shrubs. Leaves opposite or rarely alternate, entire, 
coriaceous. Flowers hermaphrodite, often highly coloured, yellow 
or orange or red, rarely white or greenish, in axillary racemes 
or cymes, rarely solitary. Perianth double; outer (calyx) adnate 
to the ovary; limb short, truncate or 4—6-toothed; inner (co- 
rolla) tubular, of 4-6 free or more or less connate petals, their 
tips ultimately spreading or reflexed. Stamens as many as the 
petals and inserted on them; filaments distinct; anthers adnate or 
versatile. Ovary inferior; style filiform ; stigma terminal. Fruit a 
berry. 
A large genus of about 350 species, abundant in the tropics, but rare in 
temperate regions. The New Zealand species are all endemic. 
A, Anthers continuous with the filament, not versatile. 
* Petals free to the base. 
Flowers small, greenish, }in. long, in small trichotomous 
panicles... .. 1. L. miecranthus. 
Flowers 1 in. long, axillary, solitary or 2 wi together .. 2. L. tetrapetalus. 
Flowers 13-2 in. long, in 3-9-flowered racemes .. .. 3. L. Colensoi. 
** Petals united to the middle or nearly so (sometimes dorsally split to the 
base in L. Adamsu). 
Flowers 14-2 in. tong, 2%0 4 at the re of a short axillary 
peduncle 5 4. L. Adamsii 
Flowers 3—?in. long, in 10- 15-flowered racemes te .. O. DL. flavidus 
B. Anthers not continuous with the filament, versatile. 
Flowers lin. long, in axillary trichotomous panicles .. 6. L. tenuiflorus. 
1. L. micranthus, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 100.—A pertectly 
glabrous bushy shrub 2-5 ft. high; branches terete, the younger 
ones flattened and 2-edged. Leaves opposite, 14— 3 in. long, oblong 
or elliptic-oblong or oblong-obovate, rounded at the tip, narrowed 
into a stout petiole about 4 in. long, thick and coriaceous, veins. 
very obscure. Panicles small, 4-$in. long, axillary, tricho- 
tomously branched, many-flowered; branches slender, divari- 
cating. Flowers minute, greenish, tin. long. Calyx-tube cylin- 
drical; limb very minute, truncate. Corolla of 4 linear-oblong 
spreading petals, free to the base. Anthers small, oblong, basi- 
fixed. Style stout, short, suddenly twisted up and down at the 
middle; stigma lateral, capitate. Berry bright-yellow, oblong, 
viscid, in. long.—Handb. N.Z. Fil. 107. Viscum antarcticum, 
A. Cunn. Precur. n. 483 (not of Forst.). 
NorrH and SoutH Is~anps: Abundant in lowland districts throughout. 
Sea-level to 2000 ft. October—November. 
Hasily distinguished by its small green flowers. Parasitic on Coprosma, 
Melicope, Leptospermum, &c. 
