
AS APPLIED TO PHYSIOLOGY. 241 
Notes oN CuscuTA AND OROBANCHE. 
Cuscuta.— One of the Affghan species of Cuscuta, is of 
great, indeed of almost unlimited size, as it frequently reaches 
to the tops of small trees, and from its composition may be 
supposed capable of indifinite division. 
'The stems which are voluble, are of the thickness of a mid- 
dle-sized string, round, except at the apex, where they are 
generally flattened, the older parts are of a reddish tinge, the 
younger, of a greenish with irregular reddish spots. 
It is irregularly branched : the branches are distant, suf- 
fulted by a fleshy boat-shaped similarly coloured leaf, to- 
wards their ends exist other similar but smaller leaves. 
The suckers are discoid and very numerous, they seemed 
to be formed at almost every point of contact, and frequently 
present the appearance of a wavy line. Is this owing to the 
confluence of the originally distinct dises? When continuous, 
they present the appearance of a canalliform groove, with 
thickened edges. 
There is something remarkable often ditinguishable in the 
nature of the branching. A branch being developed between 
that first formed and the axis, or in other words from the 
axilla of the first branch, which in this case retains its origi- 
nal size, although the secondary branch may be very long. 
It seems as if the original one was the lowermost branch of 
the other, but still its relation to the bract, shews that the 
. smaller one is that first formed. I do not know how to 
explain this: because, the leaf evidently belongs to the axis 
and not to the branch, as is pointed out by its lines of 
decurrence, although the limb is in direct relation as to 
origin with the base of the small branch. 
Even in cases in which the inner branch would appear to 
be formed first, there is always the rudimentary one in the 
axil of the leaf. E ; 
This interferes with the only mode of explanation: viz. 
ist. That the leaf suffults the outer branch, that of itself 
E Ri 
de 
