750 T hiselton-Dyer . — Morphological Notes. 
Unfortunately it arrived in a state of complete decay. This 
was not wholly a misfortune, as by placing the stem under 
a stream of water I was able, with a little care, to wash 
away the decomposed soft tissues and make a complete dis- 
section of the fibro-vascular cylinder and of the haustorium 
of the Loranthus. 
Professor Moseley refers to this in his account of the 
Loranthus in his well-known book 1 : — 
£ Soon after Sta. Rosa the hill-sides are seen to be covered 
with the tall Candelabra-like Cactus ( Cereus Quisco ). It has 
a most strange appearance. Other forms of Cacti, each 
adapted to the climate of a particular altitude, succeed one 
another as the slope of the Andes is climbed ; those that lie 
highest being dwarf forms scarcely rising above the ground. 
‘ On the Cereus Quisco grows a Mistletoe ( Loranthus aphyllus). 
This Mistletoe is most remarkable, because, like the plant on 
which it is parasitic, it is entirely devoid of leaves. It is 
extremely abundant, growing on nearly all the Cereus trees, 
and is very conspicuous, because its short stems are of a 
bright pink colour. I could not understand what it was at 
first, as it looked like a pink inflorescence of some kind 
belonging to the Cactus. 
‘ Mr. Thiselton-Dyer has examined the mass of parasitic 
tissue of this Mistletoe which draws the nourishment from the 
interior of the stem of the Cactus. He finds that having 
a soft and succulent matter in which to ramify, the basal 
fibres of the parasite form a large spongy mass of great size 
within the stem of the Cactus, which curiously simulates a 
mass of mycelium , such as produced by a parasitic fungus.’ 
For the comparison to a mass of mycelium Professor 
Moseley was responsible ; in a broad sense it is not inapt. 
I am pretty sure that what he had in his mind was the 
masses of Rhizomorpha with which he had been much struck 
in the Pacific Islands. 
There is a striking picture of the Cereus loaded with the 
1 Notes by a Naturalist on the ‘ Challenger,’ pp. 544-5. 
