- 86 FAMILIES OF FLOWERING PLANTS. 
peculiar to Australia and South Africa. They are trees or shrubs 
with a most remarkable diversity of habit and inflorescence. The 
perianth is 4-parted, consisting only of calyx; the stamens are also 
four, placed opposite the divisions of the perianth; and the ovary is 
superior and one-celled. The plants have no medicinal properties, but 
are cultivated for their peculiar flowers, which are frequently borne in 
dense cone-like clusters, and are often beautifully colored. (See Fig. 
70.) 
CHAPTER XVI. 
Order Santalales. 
The Santalales are a group of plants with very -varied habit. 
They are herbs, shrubs or trees, largely tropical, but represented by 
several genera and species in temperate climates. Many of the plants 
are parasitic on the wood of trees to which they are attached; others 
are terrestrial, but derive their sustenance from the roots of other 
plants. In general the Santalales are distinguished by the more or less 
inferior ovary, the calyx being partially or wholly united with it. The 
ovary contains a single cell. 
Family Loranthaceae. Mistletoe Family. Contains about 21 
genera and 500 species of wide geographical distribution, but most 
abundant in the tropics. 
They are parasitic herbs or shrubs, green or yellowish-green in 
color, as they contain chlorophyll and elaborate in their own tissues 
the food materials extracted from the host plant through specialized 
roots known as haustoria. The leaves and stems are fleshy or waxy in 
texture and the flowers are inconspicuous, having usually only a ealyx 
but in some cases both calyx and corolla. The calyx is more or less 
adherent to the ovary, which becomes a one-seeded berry in fruit. 
The stamens are 2 to 6 in number. 
The American mistletoe (Phoradendron flavescens) is the most 
familiar native representative of the family. There are other species 
of Phoradendron occurring in the far West, and the related genus 
Feazoumofskya is found in the same region. In tropical countries there 
are numerous species of Loranthus. The European mistletoe, repre- 
sented in Figure 71, belongs to a distinct genus, Viscum, and is more 
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