Loranthaceae 109 



and shining, enclosed in the dry brownish nerved 

 calyx. 



1. P. debilis Forst. Very slender, usually diffusely branch- 

 ing from the base, 10-25 cm. high, somewhat hispid; leaves 5-10 

 mm. long or more, broadly ovate, obtuse, rounded at the base or 

 abruptly cuneate; petioles slender, about equaling the leaves ; 

 achene 1 mm. long. 



Growing in moist shady places, especially in the chaparral belt. Santa 

 Monica Mountains; Verdugo Hills; Santa Ana Mountains. 



Family 20. LORANTHACEAE. MISTLETOE FAMILY. 



Evergreen shrubs or herbs, ours parasitic on shrubs or 

 trees and absorbing food from their sap through special- 

 ized roots (haustoria). Stems dichotomously branched, 

 s woolen at the joints and bearing opposite thick coriace- 

 ous entire exstipulate leaves, foliaceous or reduced to- 

 connate scales. Flowers dioecious, regular, clustered or 

 solitary, small and greenish. Petals none. Calyx-tube 

 adnate to the ovary, 2-5-lobed. Stamens equaling the 

 calyx-lobes and inserted upon them ; anthers 2-celled 

 or confluently 1-celled. Ovary inferior, 1-celled, 

 1-ovuled ; style simple or none ; stigma 1. Fruit a 

 berry ; seed solitary with glutinous testa and copious 

 endosperm ; embryo straight, terete or angled. 



Leaves scale-like; anthers 1-celled; pollen spinulose. 1. RAZOUMOFSKYA. 

 Leaves foliaceous; anthers 2-celled; pollen smooth. 2. PHORADBNDRON. 



1. RAZOUMOFSKYA Hoffm. 



Plants yellow or greenish-brown with fragile jointed 

 angled stems. Leaves reduced to opposite connate 

 scales. Flowers solitary or several from the same axil. 

 Staminate flowers mostly 3-parted, compressed. An- 

 thers sessile on the lobes, circular, 1-celled, dehiscent at 

 the base by a circular slit ; pollen grains spinulose. 

 Pistillate flowers ovate, compressed, 2-toothed, subsessile, 



