LORANTHACEAB 183 



flowers: Sepals 4 or 6, 2 or more usually tubercled or spurred on the back. 

 Stamens 4 or 5, inflexed in bud. Female flowers: Sepals 3 to 5, very mi- 

 nute, much shorter than the ovary. Achene minute, ellipsoid or fusiform, 

 subtended by the very minute perianth. (Greek "drive" and "filament" from 

 the elastic stalmens.) 



Species probably about 100, tropical Africa, Asia, through Malaya to 

 Australia and Polynesia, 43 in the Philippines. 



1. E. luzonense C. B. Bob. 



An erect, annual, succulent, usually simple annual 10 to 50 cm high, 

 glabrous but marked with cystoliths. Leaves alternate, distichous, mostly 

 lanceolate and from 3 to 7 cm long, rather coarsely dentate, apex acu- 

 minate, base inequilateral, 3-nerved. Male receptacles axillary, peduncled, 

 usually 5 to 6 mm in diameter, the perianth deeply 4-parted, the segments 

 about 2 mm long. Female receptacles axillary, sessile or shortly peduncled, 

 solitary or fascicled, up to 8 mm in greatest diameter, the perianth very 

 minute, with 3 rounded lobes. 



On damp cliffs, Guadalupe, near Fort McKinley, etc., fl. Sept.-Dec.;. 

 widely distributed in Luzon. Endemic. 



7. POUZOLZIA Gaudichaud 



Herbs or shrubs with alternate leaves, or the lower ones, rarely all, 

 opposite, usually entire, 3-nerved, the upper ones gradually smaller. 

 Flowers monoecious, rarely dioecious, in axillary fascicles. Male flowers: 

 Perianth 4- or 5-lobed, rarely 3-lobed. Stamens 4 or 5, rarely 3. Rudi- 

 mentary ovary oblong or clavate. Female flowers: Perianth tubular, 2- to 

 4-toothed. Ovary straight; stigma penicellate, the slender style jointed' on 

 top of the ovary. Achenes. ovate, surrounded by the perianth-segments or 

 slightly exserted. (In honor of P. C. M. de Pouzolz, a French botanist.) 



Species about 36, tropics of the Old World, 4 in the Philippines. 



1. P. zeylanica (L.) Benn. (P. indipa Gaudich.). 



A perennial, more or less prostrate or spreading herb, the stems terete, 

 sometimes 1.6 m long, often less, the whole plant glabrous or more or less 

 pubescent. Leaves lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, entire, acuminate, thin, 

 the base rounded or obtuse, 3-nerved, 2 to 7 cm long, mostly alternate. 

 Flowers small, 4-merous, in axillary clusters, the staminate ones greenish 

 or tinged with purple, the perianth 4-lobed, the stamens white, exserted, 

 the pistillate ones in the same fascicles with the staminate ones. Fruit 

 small, longitudinally ribbed, the style deciduous. 



In low, open grass lands and waste places, common and very variable, fl. 

 all the year; throughout the Philippines. India to China and Malaya. 



38. LORANTHACEAE ^ (Mistletoe Family) 



Parasitic evergreen shrubs. Leaves alternate, opposite, or whorled, 

 entire, usually thick and coriaceous, sometimes wanting. Flowers perfect 

 or l-sexual, racemed, spicate, fascicled, or umbellate, usually axillary, 

 bracteate and 2-bracteolate. Calyx adnate to the ovary, the limb truncate, 

 rarely toothed, or none. Petals 4 to 8, free or coiinate, valvate. Stamens 



* For a consideration of the known Philippine representatives of this 

 family see Merrill, E. D., "A Revision of Philippine Loranthaceae." 

 Philip. Journ. Sei. 4 (1909) Bot. 129-158. 



