By W. F. Blakely, Fii-st Botanical Assistant, National Herbarium, Sydney. 

 [Read 29th March, 1922.1 



Introduction. 



During the ordinary course of my work in the National Herbarium, I be- 

 came aware of the fact that the genus Lormithus was badly in need of revision, 

 so I set to work to straighten out what appeared to me to be the most com- 

 posite species. After considerable investigation I found that nothing less than 

 a thorough examination would prove satisfactory, consequently I decided to re- 

 vise the Family as a whole. 



I am deeply indebted to the Director, Mr. J. H. Maiden, for the encourage- 

 ment and whole-hearted assistance he has given me throughout, particularly the 

 unreserved use of the Herbarium, together with the free access to communications 

 and reference to specimens and information from other herbaria, which enabled 

 me to examine types and material much more satisfactorily than relying upon 

 descriptions only. I take this oppoi-tunity to thank him for his generous assist- 

 £Enee; also Professor Ewart of the Melbourne Herbarium; Professor Osborn of 

 the University of Adelaide; Mr. C. T. White, Government Botanist, Queensland; 

 Mr. J. M. Black, South Australia and Mr. Herbert Mann, of Western Australia, 

 all of whom, at Mr. Maiden's request on my behalf, very kindly placed the 

 whole of tlieir material at my service. I wish also to extend my appreciation 

 to Mr. 0. Staf, of Kew, and to the official artist. Miss M. Smith, for portion of 

 the types, and drawings of rare specimens. To Professor Le Comte, Professor 

 of Botany, Museum D'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, I am very grateful for informa- 

 tion relating to Van Tieghem's, Lehmann's, and Miquel's species. 



To Mr. George Weir, Forest Pathologist-in-Charge, Bureau of Plant In- 

 dustry, U.S. Department of Agi-iculture, my sincere thanks are due for a copy 

 of Martins 'Flora Braziliensis," dealing with Eichlei-'s classification of the 

 Loranthaeeae of Brazil; also to Major C. C. Calder, of the Calcutta Herbarium, 

 for the loan and gift of several specimens of the Loranthaceas of Ceylon, and 

 to Dr. B. L. Robinson, Curator, Gray Herbarium, United States, for a sketch of 

 L. Cunninghami A. Gray (L. congener Sieber). 



I also wish to express my sincere thanks and appreciation to Miss Margaret 

 Flockton, artist, National Herbarium; Mr. A. H. S. Lucas, Headmaster, Sydney 

 Grammar- School; Mr. E. Cheel; Mr. A. A. Hamilton; Mr. J. C. von Bagen; 

 Messrs. D. W. C. and R. Shiress; Mr. H. Bott; and Mr. D. Gorman. 



With the aid of the additional material from nearly all parts of the Com- 

 monwealth I have been able to make a more complete examination of almost 

 every species, which enabled me to describe more fully the imperfectly known 

 species and to define their affinity. 



