204 THE MISTLETOE FAMILY. 



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 1). 

 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 

 Santalacece among Monochlamydce than with the Calyciflorce, with which 

 they are here associated, in compliance with the Candollean arrangement. 



I. VISCUM. MISTLETOE. 



Flowers dioecious. 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). Mistletoe. — 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 males 

 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. Fl. spring. 



XXXVIII. CORNACE^S. 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 Aralia 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 



