Viscum.] loranthacea:. 



Subdivision III. GOROLLIFLOEM, DC. 

 '■ Petals united, bearing the stamens." — Bab. Man. 



Order XXXVIII. LOEANTHACE^, Juss. 



" Stamens and pistils often separated. Calyx-tube adnata with 

 the ovary, bracteated at the base ; its liinb entire or lobed. Co- 

 rolla of 4 — 8 petals, or monopetalous, with a valvate sestivation. 

 Stamens as many as divisions of the corolla and opposite to them. 

 Ovary 1-celled; ovule solitary, pendulous. Style 1 or none. 

 Stigma simple. Fritit inferior, succulent. Albumen fleshy. — 

 Parasitical, mostly tropical shrubs. Leaves entire, generally oppo- 

 site, thick and fleshy, without stipules. The seed sometimes con- 

 tains 2 or even 3 embryos." — Br. Fl. 



I. Viscum, Linn. Mistletoe. 



" Barren flowers : — Calyx obsolete. Petals 4, ovate, fleshy, 

 united at the base and bearing each a single anther adnate with 

 the upper surface. Fertile flowers : — Calyx an obscure margin, 

 superior. Peiafe 4, erect, ovate, very minute. Stigma sessile." — 

 Br. Fl. 



1. Y. album, T;. Common Mistletoe. " Leaves obovate lanceo- 

 late obtuse, obscurely 3 — 7 nerved, branches dichotomous or ver- 

 ticillate, heads of flowers in the axils of an upper pair of leaves." 

 —Br. Fl. p. 183. E. B. t. 1470. 



Parasitic on various kinds of trees in woods and orchards ; extremely rare in 

 this island. J''^. March — M.a,j,ffoo/c.; December — Afri], Lei</hton. Tp. 



E. Med. — Gathered 8 or 10 years ago by Mrs. T. HaringLon in a wood very 

 near Apse farm, as I was assured by herself, 1841. A solitary specimen on an 

 apple-tree in the kitchen-garden of Osborne House, and said to be of spontaneous 

 growth, 1844, Mr. Thomas Meehan,jun. 



W. Med. — Calbourne, ilir. Taylor. Introduced into the garden of George 

 Kirkpatrick, Esq., of Mount Pleasant, Newport. 



A small evergreen shrub, about 2 feet high, with many round, pliable yet brit- 

 tle, repeatedly dichotomous and partly depending branches, covered with a yel- 

 lowish or blackish green smooth bark, and jointed at the bifurcations. Leaves 1^ 

 — 2 inches long, terminating the uppermost forks, usually in pairs (occasionally 

 3 together, as in my specimens, in which case the central flower is 6-cleft and 

 hexandrous), opposite, sessile, obovato-lanceolate, mostly curved upwards, deep 

 shining green, thick, coriaceous, quite entire, with several (about 5) obscure, 

 parallel, branching ribs, and bearing on the upper side of their tapering base an 

 erect, fleshy, concave scale. Flowers in small sessile heads, of .3 — 5 together, in 

 the axils of each pair of leaves and in the upper forks of the branches, yellowish 

 or greenish ; barren Jlotcers seated on a 2-lobed fleshy receptacle, the lobes serving 

 as bracts to the outermost flowers. Perianth usually in 4 (sometimes iu 5, 6, or 

 even 8, Leighton), ovate, erect, fleshy segments, almost covered within by the 

 adnate sessile anther, whose surface is a network of angular cells, filled with a 



2g* 



