392 LORANTHACEAE. [ Viscum. 
(2 or 3) erect orthotropous ovules, usually not perceptible till the flower 
is past. Style or Tae simple. Fruit a berry with a glutinous endocarp. 
Seed with copious fleshy albumen, enclosing a straight axile embryo with 
a superior radicle. — Shiu. usually much branched, parasitical on trees. 
Leaves opposite or rarely alternate, thick leathery, or wanting. Bracts 
under each flower, usually connate in a little cup which often has the 
appearance of an external calyx 
A chiefly tropical — of both Worlds, with a few genera; represented in Polynesia 
by Loranthus and Vise : 
1. VISCUM, L. 
Flowers unisexual, monoecious or dioecious. Calyx-lobes 3—5, very 
short. Male fl. inte sessile on the inside of the calyx-lobes and 
opening inward with several pores. Fem. fl. ag entirely adnate or 
with a minute annular border. Ovules 1(—3). Stigma sessile. See 
solitary, erect. — Branches dichotomous. Leaves pas or none. Flowers 
t the nodes, very small, green or yellowish, 
A genus of few species, confined to the Old World. 
articulatum, Burm. — DC. Prod. IV, 284. — A much branched 
parasite, forming tufts of 1—2 ft. in diameter. Branches leafless, flattened, 
rarely terete, often branching at every node, articulate, the joints thick 
and somewhat fleshy, 3—12’ long and 1—10” broad, mostly broader at 
the top than at the base. Flowers monoecious, minute, sessile, clustered 
at the nodes, the female scarcely 4/2 long, nearly globular and _ hal 
buri ie tse cup-shaped entire bract; the male still — usually 
with 3 sepals and anthers. — Benth. Fl. Hongk. p. 14 0 
forme, Bl. — Wawra, in Flora, 1873, p. 139. 
Ber ips a thonewmortesd on a variety of trees. The species is widely spread over Polynesia 
a 
— Joints all flat, broader at the top, 1-ribbed, 3—1'/2“’ in width, the 
eae often 6" wide and 2—3-ribbed. Flowers many on cushion-like 
receptacles. 
The most common form; grows on the «Koa», «Lehue», «Kukui» and other trees. 
8. — Joints 8—10” broad, quite flat, with 3 prominent ribs, scarcely 
contracted at the joints. Berries quite aimee 
On Antidesma platyphyllum. Kauai! Oahu 
%- — Joints 1--2” broad, With a iis longitudinal streak, the lowest 
oe ae Flowers few. — V. moniliforme, BL? 
On Elaeocarpus bifidus. Kauai! (Kn.). 
6 var. salicornioides. — Joints all terete, 1 in diameter, not narrowing 
shove, the 2 clusters of flowers approximate, almost whorled. — Perhaps 
; Species. 
On Maba Sandwicensis. Molokai! Halawa. 
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