MONOCHXAMTDEJS. 649 



plants. Exa/jiples of the Genera : — Fusamis, Santalum. There 

 are about 115 species. 



Properties and Uses. — Some, as Tkesium, are slightly astrin- 

 gent ; others have a fragrant wood ; and a few produce edible 

 fruits and oily seeds. 



Fusanvs acuminatus is tlie Quandang Nut of Australia. The fniit is 

 edible and resembles Almonds in flavour. 



Santalum. — S. album is a native of India. The wood called Sandalwood 

 is remarkable for its fragrance. It is sometimes used as a perfume. In 

 India it is also employed as a sedative and for its refrigerant properties. By 

 distillation it yields a fragrant volatile oil, which is esteemed as a perfume, 

 and has recently been recommended as a remedy in gonorrhoea. S. Frey- 

 cinatium and S. pan iculatum produce the sandal- wood of the Sand^vich Islands. 



Natural Order 225. Loraxthacks:. — The Mistletoe Order. — 

 Character. — Parasitic shrubby plants. Leaves commonly oppo- 

 site, exstipulate, greenish. Flowers perfect or dioecious. Calyx 

 superior, with 3 — 8 divisions ; cestivation valvate, sometimes 

 absent. Stamens equal in number to, and opposite the lobes of, 

 the calyx. Ovary inferior, 1 -celled, with 1 — 3 orules, erect or 

 suspended, and a free-central placenta. Fruit commonly succu- 

 lent, 1 -celled, with a solitary seed; embryo in fleshy albumen, 

 with the radicle remote from the hilum. 



Most botanists place this order amongst Corolliflorals, and 

 near Caprifoliacese, as the genus Loranthus has a cup-like 

 expansion external to the floral envelopes, which is regarded by 

 many as a true cah'x, and what we have called a calyx above, 

 as a corolla. We follow the arrangement of Lindley, who 

 regards this cup-like body as an expansion of the pedicel, 

 Miers, again, has separated this order into two, Loranthace?e and 

 Viscacese: Loranthaceae being usually characterised by its large 

 showy crimson dichlamydeous perfect flowers, long stamens, and 

 an ovary with a solitary suspended ovule ; and Viscaceae by its 

 small pallid dioecious monoehlamydeous flowers, with stamens 

 sessile or nearly so, and a 1 -celled ovary with 3 ovules attached 

 to a short free-central placenta, one of which only becomes 

 perfected. 



Distribution, Sfc. — Principally found in the hotter parts of 

 America and Asia. Three species are natives of Europe, and a 

 few occur in Africa and some other regions. Exampksof the Ge- 

 nera : — Myzodendron, Viscum, Loranthus. There are aboye 400 

 species. 



Properties and Uses. — Unimportant. Some are astringent. 



Loranthus tetrandus, a native of Chili, produces a black dye. 



Viscum album is the Common Mistletoe. It is parasitic on many trees, as 

 "Willows, Thorns, Lime. Elms, Oaks, Firs, and especially on Apple-trees, in 

 this country. The Mistletoe of the Oak, which is very rare, was an object 

 of superstitious veneration by the Druids. The fruit has a viscid pulp, 

 which is employed for making bird-lime. Its bark has astringent properties. 

 The leaves of V. monoicum, parasitic on Strychnos Nux- Vomica, were found in 

 India to possess similar poisonous properties to that plant, and to be useful 

 in like cases in medicine. 



