The South Australian Naturalist. 
Loranthus Preissii Miq. 
I'his species 1 have collected at Alount Lofty on Acacia 
melanoxylon on P"’ebruary 8 this year and in flower. The shrubs 
are small and pendulous, although 1 have seen some erect in 
habit. On examining a number of flowers from two different 
plants I find that there is an interesting variation in the inflores- 
cence not previously recorded. Blakely (3) mentions the petals 
as 5-6, but I have to record the occurrence of numerous flowers 
with 4 petals. Four specimens from two different shrubs were 
examined and the number of petals in each flower are shown below, 
the figures in sets of three are to represent each partial cyme, the 
blanks show that a particular flower in the cyme was missing. 
Petals in the three 
Flowers 
Flowers 
Specimen 
flowers of the par- 
tvith four 
with five 
tial cyme 
petals 
petals 
No. 1 
445- 544- 545- 
Tj-Tj,;, 
5,— ,5; 4,-,-; 5,5,- 
6 
8 
o 
Li 
5,4,4; 5,4,— ; 5,—,— ; 
4,— ,— 
4 
3 
a 
4,5,4; 5,4,4; 5,4,4; 
545- S- 5- 445- 
S,S,— : 5,5,4: 5,— ,5; 
10 
14 
4 
-,4,4; -.4,4; 4,4,5; 
4,5,4; 5,4,5; 4,5.4; 
4,5,- 
12 
6 
Totals 
32 
31 
It is remarkable that no partial ct'iuc has flowers with the same 
number of petals to each flower, as will be seen in the above table 
the cymes have either 4 or 5-pctalled flowers each. 
(1.) Part IL 1924- y. 171, 
(2.) '‘The Loranthaceac ol AustrahaT Part 111., l^roc. Lin- 
nean Societv of New South \^'a]es, \ oh xlvii, part 4, 1922, p. 
409b. 
(3.) ‘‘The Loranthaceac of Australia,” Part IV., Proc. Lin- 
nean Society of New South Wales., \^ol. xlviii, part 2, 1923, p. 141. 
