Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/661

Loranthus.]

A parasitic shrub; branches terete, jointed. Leaves opposite or alternate, flat, broad or narrow. Flowers diœcious, in small axillary and terminal panicles. Perianth-tube of the male flowers very small, of the female flowers adnate to the ovary; limb 4-partite, rarely 5-partite. Stamens in the male flowers affixed to the base of the segments; filaments long, filiform; anthers ovate-oblong. Ovary in the female flowers inferior, ovoid; style short and thick; stigma obtuse. Fruit a subglobose 1-seeded berry; mesocarp succulent and viscid. Seed globose; albumen copious, fleshy; embryo almost terete.

1. T. antarctica, Cham. and Schl. in Linnæa, iii. (1828) 203.—A small branching shrub 2–3 ft. high; bark pale; branchlets finely pubescent. Leaves very variable in size and shape, ½–2½ in. long, from broad ovate-rhomboid to elliptic- or oblong-lanceolate, acute or obtuse, narrowed into short petioles, pale-green, rather thin; veins faint but evident, anastomosing. Panicles shorter than the leaves, 6–12-flowered; peduncles and pedicels slender, pubescent. Flowers small, ⅙ in. diam., greenish-yellow, often very abundantly produced. Segments of the male perianth linear-oblong or oblong-spathulate, of the female narrower and more acute. Stigma large, globular, obscurely lobed. Berry about ¼ in. diam., white or pink spotted with darker pink, pulp extremely viscid.—''Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 101, t. 26; Handb. N.Z. Fl.'' 108. T. Cunninghamii, ''Miq. in Linnæa'', xviii. (1844) 85. T. pubigera, ''Miq. l.c.'' 86. T. undulata, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 329. Viscum antarcticum, ''Forst. Prodr. n. 370; A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 269; Raoul, Choix,'' 42. V. pubigerum, ''A. Cunn. Precur.'' n. 484.

Parasitic shrubs; branches opposite, often dichotomous. Leaves opposite or none. Flowers diœcious or monœcious, very small,