204 THE MISTLETOE FAMILY. ek hin. 
round its summit. Petals 4. Stamens 4, opposite the petals, 
and usually inserted on them (or, in a few exotic species, the 
petals are wanting, and the stamens reduced to 3, 2, or IL). 
Ovary 1-celled, with a simple style or stigma, Fruit a 1-seeded 
berry. 
A considerable tropical family, with but very few representatives in 
the more temperate regions, and no exotic species are at present in 
cultivation. The affinities of the Order are perhaps greater with the 
Santalacee among Monochlamyde than with the Calyciflore, with which 
they are here associated, in compliance with the Candollean arrangement. 
I. VISCUM. MISTLETOE. 
Flowers dicecious. Calyx without any prominent border, Anthers 
in the males sessile in the centre of the petals, opening in several 
pores. Stigma in the females sessile on the ovary. 
The genus, taken in its most extended sense, consists of a consider- 
able number of species, ranging over nearly the whole area of the 
family. : 
1. V. album, Linn. (fig. 458). d/istletoe.—Stems becoming woody when 
old, with repeatedly forked, succulent branches, forming dense tufts 
of a yellowish-green, attaining 1 to 2 feet in diameter, and attached 
by a thickened base to the branches of trees. Leaves entire, varying 
from narrow-oblong to nearly obovate, thick and fleshy, and always 
obtuse. Flowers almost sessile in the forks of the branches ; the maies 
3 to 5 together, in a somewhat cup-shaped, fleshy bract, with 4 short, 
thick, triangular petals ; the females solitary, or rarely 2 or 3 together 
in a cup-shaped bract. The petals very minute. Berry white, semi- 
transparent, enclosing a single seed, surrounded by a very glutinous pulp. 
On a great variety of trees, but especially on the Apple, very rarely on 
the oak, extending over the whole of temperate Europe, from Sweden to 
the Mediterranean, and far into Asia, but not everywhere abundant. 
Common in southern and especially western England, except Cornwall ; 
rare in the north, and not known in Scotland or Ireland. FU. spring. 
XXXVIII. CORNACEA. THE CORNEL FAMILY. 
Limited in Europe to the single genus Cornel, with which 
are associated two or three allied tropical genera, scarcely 
differing from the Arala family, except in their erect, not 
climbing habit, the more generally opposite leaves, and the 
more complete union of the carpels and styles. 
Among the exotic genera cultivated in our gardens may be mentioned 
the Japanese Aucuba and the Benthamia fragifera from the Himalaya. 
1. CORNUS. CORNUS. 
Trees, shrubs, or very rarely herbs, with opposite (or in one exotic 
species alternate), undivided leaves, and rather small flowers in terminal — 
corymbs without bracts, or in umbels or heads surrounded by bracts, — 
which are sometimes coloured and petal-like. Calyx, 4 small teeth — 
