Hedera. | XXXVI, ARALIACER. — 205 
In woods, on rocks and old buildings, common in western and southern 
Europe, northern Africa, and west-central Asia, also in Japan, scarcely 
penetrating into central Hurope, except where the winters are very mild. 
Extends over the whole of Britain. Jl. late in autumn. Several 
varieties are in cultivation, differing chiefly in the more or less divided 
leaves, and one with yellow berries, introduced from the Continent, has 
become almost wild in some parts of southern and western England ; 
another, the so-called. Irish ivy, H. canariensis, Willd., with very broad 
thick leaves, is a very doubtful native of Ireland. 
XXXVII. LORANTHACEZA. MISTLETOE FAMILY. 
Shrubby or half-succulent evergreens, parasitic on the branches 
of trees, with jointed branches, opposite thickish leaves, and 
no stipules. Calyx combined with the ovary, either en- 
tirely so, or appearing only in the shape of an entire or toothed 
border 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 Santalacee among 
Monochlamyde than with the Calyciflore, with which they are here asso- 
ciated, 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 considerable 
number of species, ranging over nearly the whole area of the family. 
1. V.album, Linn. Common 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, tri- 
angular petals; the females solitary, or rarely 2 or 3 together in a cup- 
shaped bract. The petals very minute. Berry white, semi-transparent, 
inclosing 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, FV, spring, 
