BY C. C. BRITTLEBANK. 651 



The fruit of Loranthus Exocarpi is of a bright orange-yellow, 

 and somewhat transparent, changing to a dark madder-brown 

 when overripe. A viscid and somewhat sweet pulp coats 

 the seed, which on exposure to the air dries rapidly. Birds, 

 chiefly honey-eaters, the Swallow Dicseum, Strepera cuneicaudata, 

 and some introduced birds, carry the seeds from tree to tree. 

 Although numbers of seeds pass through the alimentary canal of 

 birds, a greater proportion are rejected after having their exterior 

 coating removed. These, falling, may adhere to branches, and 

 in a short time become firmly cemented on the upper surface and 

 sides. 



Seeds which have passed through the alimentary canal of birds 

 are often found in strings of from three to six ; these germinate 

 as readily as those which have fallen directly from the parent 

 plant. The strings and single seeds dropped by the birds are 

 seldom found on the under side of branches as in the European 

 Mistletoe. This is accounted for by the smaller size of the Aus- 

 tralian birds which feed upon the fruit of L. Exocarpi, and the 

 less quantity of excreta, which is not semifluid and consequently 

 does not flow down to the under surface, carrying the contained 

 seeds with it, as is the case with the European Viscum album, 

 described by Kerner and Oliver in " The Natural History of 

 Plants." 



A large bird, Strepera cuneicaudata, feeds upon the fruit, which 

 it swallows whole, casting the seeds, as owls cast the bones, 

 teeth, and hard indigestible parts of small animals eaten. These 

 cast pellets, from their nature, never adhere to the branches, but 

 occasionally lodge in forks, seldom if ever growing. 



Numbers of seeds are deposited, or fall upon, branches which 

 are covered with hard, stringy or corky bark, and, being unable 

 to penetrate to the soft underlying cortex, perish. Nearly all 

 the hosts on which the parasite has been observed, have the 

 thicker limbs covered by dry, hard bark; and it is owing to this 

 that we generally find the parasite start upon thin twigs or 

 branches which have clean, tender, and sappy bark. 



