38 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
many of the Asiatic species will be found to conform with the 
same genus. On some future occasion I will give more in detail 
the facts upon which I propose to separate from the Loranthacece, 
the genera Viscum, Myzodendron, and Lepidoceras : respecting 
Eubrachion and Ginalloa I cannot offer an opinion : Antidaphne 
from Pdppig’s description is evidently related to Loranthaceee, as 
well as Tupeia *, on account of the structure of the ovarium. 
It will be sufficient to remark at present, that in Loranthacece 
the flowers are generally hermaphrodite ; the calyx, with a free and 
entire margin, is adnate wuth the ovarium the petals are linear, 
frequently very long ; the opposite stamens with lengthened fila- 
ments are free or only partially adnate with the petals ; the an- 
thers often versatile, always 2-lohed and 4-celled, bursting by 
two longitudinal furrows ; the pollen is flattened, 3-lobed, and 
marked by three lines radiating from the centre ; the ovarium is 
unilocular with a single ovule suspended from the summit of its 
cell ; and the embryo, with large fleshy cotyledons, almost fills the 
cavity of the cell of the fruit, being covered with veiy thin albu- 
men : finally they often form distinct trees, are frequently more 
epiphytic than parasitic, and the inflorescence is generally pani- 
culate, with numerous pedicelled flowers, often of great size and 
brilliant colours. We perceive nothing like this in Viscum, My- 
zodendron, or Lepidoceras, w'here the flowers are always very mi- 
nute, either dioecious or monoecious, and generally imbedded in 
decussate pairs in a fleshy spikelet. In the group I have called 
Allobium, the structure of the flower corresponds wdth that of 
most of the genera of the Santalacece, the calyx is obsolete, the 
corolla or perigonium has three or four short and 3-angular 
lobes, the sessile anthers already described are opposite to these 
segments, and alternate with the lobes of an internal adnate disk ; 
in the female flowers, also 3- or 4-lobed, the ovarium is half im- 
mersed in a similar adnate fleshy cupshaped disk; it is 1 -celled, 
with three ovules suspended from a free central placenta; the berry 
contains a single naked seed, enclosing a compressed heart-shaped 
albumen, with a minute embryo in its almost cordate summit ; 
the radicle is terete, the upper moiety of which is nearly exserted, 
* I have had an opportunity of examining the Tupeia Cunninghamii, 
which scarcely differs from the typical species, Viscum antarcticum, Forst. j 
it agrees with the characters assigned to it by Forster, Chamisso, and 
Schlechtendahl (Linn. iii. 203), Richard (Voy. Astrol. p. 269), and Miquel 
(Linn, xviii. 85). At the same time that it is in noway related to Viscum, 
it quite accords with the Loranthacece, and agrees in every respect with the 
characters given in Endhcher’s ‘ Gen. PL’ p. 802, of Spirostylis, a subgenus 
proposed by Presl and adopted by Blume (DC. Prodr. iv. 315). This spe- 
cies from Acapulco will therefore claim the name of Tupeia Haenckeana, 
Spirostylis Hamckeana, Presl, the former genus being proposed in 1828 
the latter in 1829. 
