I 



LORANTHACE^ 



Leaves alternate, linear to oblong-lanceolate, entire, obtuse, sub-coriaceous, 

 dull green above and nearly glabrous, or white scattered stellate hairs above, 

 silvery -grey, with scaly scurf beneath, midrib with rusty scales, shortly petiolate, 

 ^-2 ins. long, lengthening after floweruig to 3 ins., ^ in. wide. Autumn 

 tint yellow. 



A deciduous shrub, 1-8 ft. ; or Willow-like tree, 10 ft. ; Branches slender, 

 sub-pendulous, or short and spinescent ; Shoots with rusty bronze scales ; Buds 

 rusty-brown. 



Native of East and South England ; naturalised in Scotland and Ireland. 

 Hippophaes was old Greek name used by Hippocrates for a prickly spurge. 

 Specific name from Rhammis, the Buckthorn, from resemblance of spinous 

 branches. Known also as Sallow-thorn. 



Class I Dicotyledons 



Division IV. . . . Incompletce 

 Natural Order . . Loranthacece 



Evergreen shrubs, with jointed stems, parasitic on the branches of trees ; 

 Leaves usually opposite, exstipulate, thick and coriaceous ; Floxveis usually 

 dioecious ; Calyx 4-8-lobed, valvate in bud ; Stamens 4-8, adnate to calyx lobes ; 

 Ovary inferior, 1 -celled; Fruit a 1 -seeded berry. 



MISTLETOE, Viscum album. 



Parasitic on trees, especially apple. March — May. 



Flowers yellowish-green, dioecious or rarely monoecious, entomophilous, 

 small, in a dense cymose cluster between the forks, or at the apex of, dichasial 

 shoots; Males 3-5, in a cup-shaped fleshy bract; Females solitary, or 2-3 in bract; 

 3Iales, perianth of 4-6 triangular segments on margin of hollow receptacle ; 

 Stamens 4-6, anthers sessile, cells adnate to the inner faces of sepals, dehiscing 

 by pores ; Females, 4 segments, sunk in receptacle, crowning the ovary, stigma 



VOL. II. 133 M 



