from redundancies, and much as we have curtailed the list I am not quite sure that all ours are
unexceptionable. In an order generally so unmanageable and where dried specimens are so apt
to mislead, it is not to be wondered at, if many uhteneable ones have been admitted on its list
of species which will yet require to be reduced, and until this is done we can only make remote
guesses as to the numerical proportion they bear to the flora of the country.
P roperties and Uses. Much has been written on the efficacy of the Mistletoe in the
cure of Epelipsy, and other spasmodic and nervous diseases, and some apparently very strong
cases in its favour have been published, but in spite of these it has fallen, at least among English
practitioners, into total disuse, and no doubt were it as satisfactory to publish failures as
successful cases, there would be no want of examples of such to be found in the Medical Literature
of the time. But as silent neglect seems equally efficapeous in discarding an inert medicine
from practice, that is the plan usually pursued in cases of failure. This plant having so
completely failed to maintain its character as a medicine, it is unnecessary to say more regarding
it here.
In its chemical properties it is somewhat more interesting ; the peculiar viscid juice surrounding
the seed (whence the name Viscum) as well as the green parts of the plant abound in
the peculiar, very adhesive matter called Bird-lime, principally composed of a resinous matter
which in modern chemistry has received the name of Viscin, and it is believed may be obtained
from nearly every species of the order by the usual process of boiling the bruised bark for
several hours, then burying it in earth covered with stones until it ferments and changes to a
mucilaginous consistency, afterwards pounding it in a mortar until it becomes a paste and washing
it with river water to remove the impurities.
To those interested in ornithology and to whom it may be desirable to obtain uninjured
specimens, it may prove useful to know that plants abounding with this substance are of common
occurrence in this country. I know no other use to which they may be applied.
R emarks on G enera and Species. Under this head I have nothing to add to what is
already published in our Prodromus. The number of genera has since the publication of the
4th Vol of DeCandolle’s Prodromus been augmented from four to seven, but none of the new
ones have been found in India. In Southern India two only have yet been detected, but two
species of a third which have been referred here by DeCandolle, were found by Dr. Wallich in
Nepaul. These, however, in the opinion of Dr. Arnott must be excluded from the order.
They differ from most of the others in being terrestrial, not parasitic plants, and in having
a one-celled ovary, with three ovules attached a central column : a structure in which they
associate with Symphorema, which has a similar ovary with 4 ovules pendulous from the apex
of a central columu This structure, combined with the stamens opposite the segments of the
corolla, induces Meisner to refer it to Mysineae and should such ultimately prove to be its
true place, then I presume Symphorema will also find a more suitable station there, than among
the Vvrbinaceac where it is now doubtfully placed, though J do not think either family the most
appropriate station.
Various attempts have been made to subdivide Loranthm into smaller genera, but according
to Meisner—an excellent Botanist—the proposed genera are constructed principally on variations
of habit, and with characters scarcely sufficiently permanent to be received as satisfactory,
an opinion in which I fully coincide.
So much space has already been devoted to this article that I should have hesitated about
extending it by the introduction of remarks on species even had my materials permitted of my
doing so, but. such is not the case, the only decidedly new species I have added to my collection
having already been published in table 306 of my leones, and also by Sir W. J. Hooker in his
leones Selec'ae. As however Dr. Arnott’s specific character which accompanies that plate is
fuller than mine, I shall here republish it in his own words.
Loranthus lageniflorus.
Corolla longe tubulosa aequaliter 5-fida, antheris erectis, involucro campanulato magno co-
lorato circa flores paucos subcapitatos.—Am .
Hab.—Malabar.—Dr. Wight.
Lignosus, glaber, parasiticus. Folia opposita, petiolata, petiolo 2-4 lineas longo, ovato-
lanceolata, sen elliptico-oblonga, obtusa, basi rotundata, penninervia, crassa, coriacea. Pedun-
culi fasciculati ad ramos annotinos orti, brevissimi, apice involucrum sanguineum gamophyllum
campanulatum magnum 4-5-lobum ferentes. Flores 4-5 in fun do involucri subsessiles. Caly-
cis limbus cupularis membranaceus, repando-5-dentatus. Corolla puberula, tubulosa, involucrum
duplo superans, apice supra medium quinquefida, versus laciniarum basin per aestivationem
inflatim annulata, laciniis linearibus demum reflexis. Antherce erectae.—Am.
This is perhaps the most beautiful of the Genus. Its blood-red involucres are about an
inch long, and four to six lines across.—Am .
P. S. When preparing the preceding portion of this article, I had not materials at hand
for furnishing correct analyses of the flowers of this family. These I have now obtained of two
genera, Viscum and Loranthus ; (see table 122,) those for the former taken from V. orientate,
for the latter from the variety of L. loniceroides. The former, however, I now find departs
from the character of the genus in having diandrous flowers (not tetrandrous), and an erect,
not pendulous ovule, whence I presume it ought to form the type of a new genus. Here the
anterior and posterior sepals only bear anthers, they, however, agree with those of Viscum in
being cellular. The principal peculiarity of the species of Loranthus, here represented, is the
tubular extension of the, so called, calyx, or rim surmounting the ovary, the true nature of
which is still undetermined, being equally present, though less developed, in Viscum, but in
that genus the perianth is called calyx, and the parts sepals, while in Loranthus it is called
corolla and petals, both of which can scarcely be right. On this subject, Lindley well remarks:
“I t is customary to call the floral envelopes of the genera of Loranths by the name of
sepals in Viscum, and of petals in Loranthus, because in the latter genus we find a cup-like
expansion, which is regarded as a calyx. I t seems, however, impossible to doubt that the parts
of the perianth are really of the same nature in both instances, as is proved moreover by the
stamens, which are applied to their face in both cases. Schleiden, indeed, calls the male flower
of Viscum naked, and supposes it to consist of nothing but anthers; but M. Decaisne has more
correctly shown the male flowers of that genus to consist of four anthers, grown to the inner
face of four calycine sepals. The rim exterior to the calyx, which has given rise to the idea
that the coloured part of a Loranth is corolla, is present in Viscum also, in the form of a slight
annular swelling; and is in all probability analogous to the raised line terminating the cup, from
which the sepals spring in Chryseis or Eschsckoltzia. In fact we must in theory regard the
flower of a Loranth to consist of a fleshy, cup-like expansion of the end of a branch, from the
upper edge of which expansion the sepals rise.”
These views, in which I quite coincide, mainly on the ground of the position of the
stamens opposite the lobes of the perianth, show that this is not a truly dichlamydeous family,
and that it is erroneously placed here. If the perianth of Loranthus be a corolla with the
stamens opposite the lobes, that structure would establish an affinity with Primulacece and
Myrsiniacece, not borne out by other characters, and which therefore has not been noticed by
systematic writers. But viewed as a stameniferous calyx, herbaceous in Viscum and petaloid
in Loranthus, its affinities are altered, and it takes its place among a large group of orders
coinciding in that structure.
In addition to the remark above, under geographical distribution, that they are sometimes
found growing on lactescent plants, I have since become acquainted with an additional instance
in the case of my L. Euphorbice, which I have always found growing on the very milky stems
j tortilis, but never itself milky, showing its eliminating power: while on the other hand,
1 have been informed that when growing on the Nux vomica, they become poisonous, acquiring
the properties of the fostering tree.