318 
FLORA OF ADEN. 
Ovary inferior, usually without a distinct placenta and ovule ; style 
simple or absent ; stigma not or hardly lobed. 
Fruit usually baccate, crowned by the persistent calyx when the 
latter is present ; pericarp sticky. Seed solitary, albuminous or 
exalbuminous, without a distinct testa ; embryo fairly large, terete or 
angled, with distinct hypocotyl and 2 (more rarely 3 — 6) cotyledons. 
Genera 24 ; species about 1,000. 
Distribution : — Chiefly tropical and subtropical. 
1. Loranthus Linn. 
Green leafy shrubs, parasitic on Dicotyledons, seldom on Coniferse or 
Monocotyledons, often very brittle, even in a living state. Leaves 
opposite, ternate or alternate, penninerved, or several-nerved from the 
base. 
Inflorescence usually racemose ; subtending bract of each flower situ™ 
ated at the apex of the pedicel when the latter is present ; flowers often 
large and brightly coloured, hermaphrodite. Calyx more or less lobed, 
or truncate, sometimes very short, occasionally provided inside at the 
base with a fleshy annular thickenning (intramarginal ringj. Corolla 
polypetalous or, more usually, gamopetalous, regular or zygomorphic ; 
tube often split unilaterally for some distance downwards when the 
Dower expands. Filaments united in their lower part with the petals ; 
anthers introrse, not versatile. Style Aliform, or gradually thickened 
upwards in the upper part and then rather suddenly contracted into a 
narrow neck below the stigma (skittle-shaped) ; stigma truncate or more 
or less capitate. 
Fruit baccate, usually globose, ovoid or ellipsoid, crowned by the 
persistent calyx. Seed albuminous ; embryo straight, terete. 
Species about 500. 
Distribution : — Old World, mostly tropical and subtropical. 
I. Lorautlius curviflorus Benth. ex Oliv. in Hook. Ic. PL t. 1304; 
Engl, in Engl. Bot. Jahrb. XX, 130 ; Engl. Pfl. Ost Afr. C. 167 ; 
Schweinf, et Volk, in Ghika, Pays des Somalis 200 ; Schweinf, in Bull. 
Herb. Boiss. IV, App. II, 150; Sprague in This. -Dyer FI. trop. Afr. 
VI, sect. 1,279. 
Plicosepalus curviflorus Van Tiegh. in Bull. Soc. Bot. France XLI, 
504, 540. 
Arabic name in the Tehama ; Sheker. 
Description : — Branches spreading ; branchlets slender, more or less 
nodose, glabrous, soon lenticellate. Leaves opposite, subopposite or 
alternate, linear, oblanceolate-linear or oblanceojate (more rarely 
