HOST PLANTS OF THE AUSTRALIAN LORANTHACE 553 
No. 12.—THE HOST PLANTS OF THE AUSTRALIAN 
LORANTHACEA. 
By Ratpu Tate, Professor of Natural History in the University 
of Adelaide. 
(Read Monday, January 10, 1898.) 
Bentuam, Fl. Aust., iii, p. 388, 1866, writes :—‘The notes of 
collectors on the trees on which the several species [of Loranthus] 
grow are so varied that there seem to be no evidence that particular 
species affect particular trees. The most commonly noted are 
Eucalyptus, Casuarina and Exocarpus, but Acacia, Banksia, 
Metaleuca, Fusanus and many others are also mentioned as feed- 
ing species of Loranthus.” He refers to the host-plants of one 
species of Loranthus (L. celastroides), though the denominations of 
Exocarpi, Casuarine and Melaleuce as applied to L. exocarpi, L. 
linophyllus and L. pendulus respectively imply the generic posi- 
tion of their host-plants. Mueller, Frag. Phyt., ii, p. 109, reports 
Notothixos incanus upon Eucalypti and Angophore, and Bentham, 
op. cit., remarks under Viscwm and Votothixos that, ‘they are found 
sometimes growing upon species of Loranthus as well as upon the 
trees that feed them.” 
Our knowledge of the life-histories of our Loranthaceze was 
thus, at the date of publication of the third volume of the “ Flora 
Australiensis,” brief in quantity and indifferent in quality. Under 
these circumstances, I have thought a useful purpose might be 
served by bringing together additional facts as the outcome of 
field-observations by botanists and well-trained collectors ; and by 
extended observations we may arrive at the conclusion respecting 
the restricted or non-restricted distribution of these parasites. 
LIST OF AUSTRALIAN LORANTHACEZ AND THEIR HOST-PLANTS, 
Viscum orientale, Wild. No record. 
V. angulatum, Heyne. No record. 
V. articulatwm, Burmann. On Doryphora sassafras, by F. Turner, 
P.L.S., N.S. Wales, ser. 2, vol. 9, p. 559, 1895. 
