791 



a 



LURANTHACE.E. 



[El'IGYNOUS EXOGEKS. 



Mr. Miers, who has carefully studied this Order, think?, with much reason, that 

 Viscum and Loranthus ought not to be associated, as is usually done, and separates 

 them as follows : — 



LORANTHACE.E. 



" Suffruticose plants, in most cases growing into the tissue of other vegetables, as 

 true parasites, often simply epiphytical, and sometimes terrestrial shrubs. Leaves 



opposite or alternate, entire, veinless, fleshy, without 

 stipules. Flowers $ , axillary or terminal, corymbose, 

 cymose, rarely umbellate or capitate. Calyx tubular, 

 adnate, margin free aud entire, frequently springing 

 from a series of successive cup-shaped bracts. Petals 

 4-8, often 5 or 6, linear, frequently of great length, 

 and of brilliant colours, valvate in aestivation, quite 

 free, sometimes slightly agglutinated at base, insertion 

 epigynous. Stamens equal in number and opposite 

 to petals, to which they are partially adnate at base ; 

 anthers introrse 2-lobed, basifixed or adnate and erect, 

 sometimes incumbent and versatile, bursting by 



2 longitudinal fissures : pollen flat, 3-lobed, with 



3 radiating lines. Ovary always inferior, 1-locular : 

 ovule solitary suspended from the summit of the 

 cell. Style filiform. Stigma simple, sub-capitate. 

 Fruit drupaceous, ovoid, fleshy or glutinous, crowned 

 by a circular scar or by the persistent rim of the 

 calyx, and partly imbedded below in its bractiform 

 cup, 1-locular, monospermous, containing a subcori- 

 aceous putamen, crowned by a short membranaceous 



cap, lroni the summit of which the solitary exutive seed is suspended, so that this 

 appears as if it were partly exserted ; embryo enclosed in thin, almost pellicular 



Fig. DXXIV, bis. 



Fig. DXXIV. ter. 



albumen, filling the cell; radicle short, subterete or discoidal, superior, and therefore 

 next the hilum, with 2 to 4 large, semiterete, fleshy cotyledons. 



,,r 'L &<*■— Details of the fructification of Struthanthus. 1. flower magnified- 2 section 



■calyx, ovary and style; 3. fruit invested by the adnate calyx : 4. section of ditto aftor the 



&S nvY,v e f = 5 -™e»°ryowith4cotylc.loiis^V, rth tchesby Mr. .V,,-,. tW th<3 



fy Mr Mters ' f '"-- Loranth » s mcmecylifi.lius. I. corolla laid open ; 2. ovary, &c.,-afto- sketch** 



