134 
CACTACEiE. 
[. Rhipsalis . 
beset with bundles of large hard yellow spines with a tuft of short wool at the 
base, solitary sessile flowers, numerous imbricated acute reddish-green sepals, 8 
or more yellow or reddish petals above an inch long, indefinite included irritable 
stamens and a juicy fruit the size and shape of a small pear. Raquette . 
Order LIY. LORANTHCAEiE. 
Flowers perfect or diclinous. Perianth simple in Viscum (double in 
Loranthus) ; segments 4-5, valvate. Stamens inserted on the perianth- 
segments and opposite to them. Ovary 1-celled ; ovule solitary, erect, 
orthotropous, adnate to the cell-wall ; style simple or absent ; stigma 
simple. Fruit a one-seeded berry. Seed with an embryo in copious 
fleshy albumen. — Parasitic shrubs, leafy or leafless. Distrib. Cosmo- 
politan in warmer regions. Species 500. 
Flowers unisexual ; perianth single 1 . Viscum. 
Flowers bisexual ; perianth double 2. Loranthus. 
1. VISCUM, Linn. 
Flowers unisexual. Calyx-tube adnate to the ovary; sepals 4, 
valvate. Petals 0. Stamens adnate to the petals ; anthers many- 
celled, opening by many pores. Ovary inferior ; stigma sessile, peltate. 
Fruit a one-seeded berry. — Parasitic shrubs, leafy or leafless. Dis- 
trib. Old World. Species 50. 
Stems not jointed, furnished with leaves 1. V. triflorum. 
Stems without leaves, distinctly jointed at the nodes. 
Joints -jL in. broad 2. V. capensb. 
Joints in. broad 3. V. tcenioides. 
1. V. triflorum, DC. Prod. iv. 279. Grlabrous, leafy, much- 
branched, a foot or more long, with slender sulcate angular branchlets. 
Leaves opposite, ovate or oblong, obtuse, 1-2| in. long, obscurely 3-5- 
nerved, deltoid at the base, short-petioled, thick and rigid. Flowers 
3 together on copious short erecto-patent solitary rarely 2-3-nate 
peduncles, with a pair of small deltoid bracts at the tip ; pedicels 
none. Sepals 4, minute, lanceolate. Berry yellow, the size of a pea. 
Y. venosum, DC. loc. cit. V. rotundifolium, Bory , Iter i. 320, non 
Linn. Y. nervosum, Hochst. 
Mauritius and Seychelles, frequent in the woods. Also Bourbon and Abys- 
sinia. Mr. Home sends also two plants from the Seychelles which may be varieties 
of this or distinct species. 572. Leaves smaller, more rigid, 1-1| in- long, obovate, 
very obtuse, with a deltoid base, the 3 ribs only perceptible at the very base of the 
leaf when dried. 573. Leaves with texture and nerving of type, 1^-11 in. long, 
oblong-lanceolate, deltoid at the base, narrowed from the middle to a subobtuse 
point. In both, the flowers seem quite to match those of the type. Gui du pays. 
2. V. capense, Linn. fit. ; DC. Prod. iv. 282. A leafless parasite, 
with stems jointed like those of a Salicornia, 3-4 in. long, densely fas- 
cicled, tripinnately branched with spreading branchlets ; joints glabrous, 
