On JPseudixus? a New Genus of Loran 

 thaceae, founded on the well-known 

 and widely distributed Species, 

 Viscum, japonicum Thunb. 



By 

 Bunzo Hayata. 



It is certainly a cause for some surprise to find that 

 Viscum japonicum Thunb., so widely distributed and so 

 generally recognized as a species, is nevertheless not congeneric 

 with the familiar Viscum album or Viscum articulatum. That 

 the plant in question has long passed for a Viscum is partly 

 due to the extremely difficulty of discriminating its minute 

 flowers, and partly to the presumption of its being assignable 

 to the said genus through mere conjecture from its close 

 resemblance to a Fiscum-species in its external features. 



It is true that for analysis the flowers of Viscum japonicum 

 Thunb. are extremely small, perhaps too small even to be 

 found by the usual methods of studying flowering plants. 

 So far as I am aware, the floral structure of the plant has 

 never been made satisfactorily clear. Thunberg 2) describes the 

 branches, but not the flowers. Neither does Hooker 3) describe 

 them in his Flora of British India. Engler 4) gives sketches 

 of the plant with female flowers, but says nothing about male 

 flowers. 



1) The generic name Pseudhus (^ceoorj? false+ib? mistletoe) is suggested to me 

 by Monsieur J. Cotte, lecturer on Greek language and literature. 



2) Thdnberg, C. P., Botanical Observations on the Flora Japonica, in Transac- 

 tions of the Linnean Society, Vol. II. p. 329. 



3) Hooker, J. D., Flora of British India, Vol. V. p. 226. 



4) Engeer, A., Loranthacese, in Engl., A. u. Praxtl, K., Naturlicli. 1'ilan- 

 zenfam. 1II.-1, p. 195. 



