The vegetable kingdom, or, The structure, classification, and uses of plants : illustrated upon the natural system / by John Lindley ; with upwards of five hundred illustrations.

  • Lindley, John, 1799-1865.
Date:
MDCCCXLVIII [1847]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The vegetable kingdom, or, The structure, classification, and uses of plants : illustrated upon the natural system / by John Lindley ; with upwards of five hundred illustrations. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    861/990 (page 789)
    LQUANTHACE/t. Order CCC11. LORANTHACE7E.—Loranths. T mnthn H Rich Inn Mus. 12. 292. (ISOS) ; DC. Prodr. 4. 277. Mimoire (1830); Blume, Ft. Jmv-Vicoidea-. Rich. Anal, du Fr. 33. (1818).—Loranthacese, Ed. pr.xxxm. ; Endl. Grn. clxvi., I right lUustr. 2. t. HU.—Myzodendreae, K. Brown in Linn. Trans, xix. -o~. Diagnosis.—Asaral Exogens, with a 1 -celled ovary and definite ovules with a naked nucleus. Shrubby plants, in almost all cases growing into the tissue of other vegetables, as true parasites.' Leaves opposite, or sometimes alternate, veinless, fleshy, without stipules. Flowers j5 or $ 2, axillary, or terminal, solitary, corymbose, eymose, or spiked. Calyx sometimes 0 ; most commonly spring- ing from within the brim of a fleshy cup- like expansion of the pedicel, and usually surrounded with bracts at the base ; sepals 3,4, or 8 in number, often joined into a tube, valvate in aestivation. Petals 0. Stamens equal in number to the sepals, and opposite to them if any are present ; anthers 1-celled, •2-celled, or broken up into numerous cavi- ties. Ovary 1-celled, sunk within the cup- like expansion of the pedicel, and adhering to it; * ovules with a perfectly naked nu- cleus, erect, or suspended from the point of a central placenta ; style 1 or 0 ; stigma sim- ple, if distinguishable. Fruit succulent, (or occasionally dry,) 1-celled. Seed solitary ; embryo longer than the fleshy albumen, and generally projecting beyond it ; sometimes with no apparent cotyledons, in Viscum seve- ral in the same seed ; radicle at the point of the seed most remote from the hilum. [Ac- cording to Mr. Bidwill, the seeds of Nuytsia germinate with 3 cotyledons.—Ann. Nat. Hist. viii. 439.] Very different opinions are entertained by Botanists concerning the true affinity of Loranths. In some respects they are near Caprifoils, from which they are readily known not only by their parasitical habit, but also by their stamens being opposite valvate lobes of a tubular calyx. Don has expressed an opinion that a connection is established between this Order and Araliads, by means of Aucuba (Jameson’s Journal, Jan. 1830, p. 168). Brown (Flinders, 549) suggests a relation to Proteads. Endli- cher decides in favour of the relation to Caprifoils, Witch Hazels and Cornels. Adrien de Jussieu takes a similar view {flours Element., p. 567). Dr. Wight sug- gests a relation to Alangiads. Adolphe Brongniart combines them, along with Horn- worts, Chloranths, Sandal worts, and Olacads, into a class which he calls Santalinees. These discordant opinions are caused by the different interpretations put by Botanists upon the nature of the floral envelopes. It 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 exter- nal to them a cup-like expansion, which is regarded as a calyx. It however seems im- possible 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. Sctileiden, indeed, calls the J flower of Viscum naked, and supposes it to con- sist of nothing but anthers ; hut M. Decaisne has more correctly shown the $ flowers Fig. DXXIII. • Schleiden has taken a very different view of the structure of Viscum, and describes it ns having a truly naked mule / surrounded by a tetramerouB herbaceous perianth ; this ovule he calls “ erect, atropnl, and consisting of a naked nucleus.— Witgm. Arch. 1S39, p. 213. Fig l>XX III.—Loranthus chrysanthus.—Bttnnc. I. section of a flower. 2. of a fruit.