336 



DOMESTIC BOTANY. 



Snowberry (^Symphoricarpus racemosus). A native of North 

 America, and cultivated in gardens as an ornamental shrub, 

 its snow-white berries being conspicuous in the autumn. 



Guelder Rose (Viburnum Opulus). A shrub, 6 to 10 feet 

 high, native of this country. The flowers are produced in 

 flat umbel-like corymbs, the outer series being abortive, and 

 the petals enlarged and white ; but in the cultivated variety 

 the whole of the flowers are abortive and form the well- 

 known " snowball flower." 



Several other species of Viburnum, natives of North Ame- 

 rica, form ornamental shrubs ; as also the Laurustinus ( V, 

 Tinus), a native of the South of Europe, which has long been 

 cultivated in this country as a handsome showy flowering 

 evergreen shrub. 



The Mistletoe Family. 



(LORANTHACE^.) 



Shrubby parasites, rarely trees. Leaves opposite or alter- 

 nate, thick, coriaceous, without apparent veins. Flowers 

 axillary or terminal in umbel-like heads. Some unisexual, 

 calyx small or a disk only. Corolla, consisting of 4 to 8 

 petals, free or sometimes united, forming a tube, generally 

 long and of showy colours, as in Loranthus, or inconspicuous, 

 as in Viscum. Fruit, a fleshy drupe-like glutinous berry, 

 crowned with a circular scar or rim, one-seeded, which is 

 partly exserted. 



There being apparently only one floral envelope, much 

 difference of opinion exists among botanists as to whether 

 it should be viewed as a calyx or corolla ; on account of its 

 being conspicuous and coloured, as in Loranthus, and seated 

 on a disk, it is here considered as a corolla, the disk repre- 

 senting the place of the abortive calyx. Above 400 species 

 are recorded of this remarkable family. They are princi- 

 pally tropical, but are represented by Myzodendron, in Terra 

 del Fuego, and by Mistletoe and Loranthus Europceus in Europe. 

 They abound chiefly in forest countries, where they are truly 



