;CXIV. LORANTHACE^. 1377 



1. LORANTHUS, Linn. 

 (Referring to the long linear form of segment of perianth.) 

 Calyx-limb short, truncate or toothed. Petals 4 to 8, free or more or less 

 united in a tubular corolla, spreading at the ends. Stamens inserted on the bases 

 of the petals ; filaments distinct ; anthers adnate or versatile, with parallel cells 

 opening longitudinally. Style filiform, with a terminal stigma. Fruit a berry, 

 usually crowned by the limb of the calyx. — Parasitical shrubs. Leaves opposite 

 or rarely alternate. Flowers hermaphrodite, axillary or terminal, in racemes or 

 cymes or solitary, long and brightly coloured, or green at least at the tips. 

 Bracts in all the Australian species solitary, small and concave, close under each 

 flower, without the ii bracteoles which are in many extra-Australian species. 



A very large genus, almost wholly tropical or subtropical, in Amerioaj Africa, and Asia, 

 ■with one species as Jar north as the south of Europe. Of the following species, one is 

 common ia Asia, another extends into Timor and perhaps over several of the islands of the 

 Indian Archipelago ; the others, as far as hitherto ascertained, are endemic. 



Several of thi? Australian species, besides the Asiatic L. longiflorus, appear to have two forms 

 of leaves, so different in aspect that it is difBeult to fancy that the two belong to one species ; 

 the one sessile, broad and deeply cordate, the other petiirlate, narrow, and contracted at the 

 base. Many also, probably, vary in the colours of the flower more or less red or yel ow-orange, 

 ■with or without green tips or the green extending to below the middle. 



Anthers versatile, oblong. Petals free. Leaves opposite. Inflorescence 

 mostly terminal. 

 Leaves petiolate, thick, from short and obovate to long lanceolate and 



falcate. Cymes several-flowered 1. L. celuatreiies. 



Leaves small, sessile or nearly so. Peduncles slender, 2flowered. 



Leaves linear, narrowed at the base . . 2. £. BidiHUii. 



Leaves ovate, rounded at the base .... . ... . 3. L. viyrfifolhis. 



Anthers adnate, linear. Petals united to the middle or higher up. 

 Leaves alternate or opposite. Inflorescence axillary. 



Flowers several, in r.icemes i. L. longiflorus. 



Flowers S3veral, in cymes. 



Flowers and inflorescence glabrous. Calyx-limb truncate, much 

 shorter than the adnate tube. 

 Leaves obovate to oblong. 



Cymes rather loose, shortly pedunculate 5. L. dictyopMehii?. 



Cymes reduced to a sessile cluster 6. i. alyxi/oUus. 



Flowers and inflorescence hoary-tomentose. Calyx-limTj 5-toothed, 



nearly as long as the adnate tube. Cymes sessile, few-flowered . 7. L. odontocaJyx. 

 Flowers solitary or in pairs. 



Leaves mostly opposite, coriaceous. 



Leaves terete, slender 8. L. livearifoHus. 



Leaves flat, from narrow-linear to oblong-cr.neate ... . . 9. L. Exocarpi. 



Anthers adnate, linear. Petals free. Leaves mostly opposite. 



Flowers in clusters of 3, the clusters in axillary racemes 10. 1. siynutus. 



Flowers in axillary cymes (or umbels), the common peduncle with 2 to 

 5 diverging or divaricate umbellate branches. 

 Branches of the peduncle (usually 3 or 4) bearing each a single 



flower 11. i. sanguineus. 



Peduncle twice forked with 1 flower to each branch 12. L. hifnrcatns. 



Branches of the peduncle usually 3 or 4, each bearing 3 flowers. 



Leaves terete 13. i. Unophyllus. 



Leaves flat. 



Lateral flowers of the 3, or all three, pedicellate. Plantglabrous 14, L. pendiilus. 

 Flowers all 3 closely sessile. Plant more or less hoary-tomen- 

 tose, at least the calyx . . 15. L. Quandang. 



Flowers ses-ile on the dilated apexof the peduncle, between 2 large 



bracts or floral leaves IG. i. grandibracteus, 



1. !■. celastroides (Celastrus-like), Sieb. in Eoein. and Schidt. Sijst. vii. 

 163; Benth. FL Austr., iii. 389. Glabrous. Leaves opposite, from obovate or 

 ovate, 1 to 2in. long to euneate-oblong lanceolate or almost linear, and 4in. long 

 or more, and when narrow often falcate, obtuse or very rarely almost acute, 

 narrowed into a petiole. Flowers in loose terminal trichotomous cymes, shortly 

 pedunculate and always shorter than the last leaves, sometimes appearing axillary 



