ea LORANTHACEZ. [ Loranruus. 
distinctly produced above the ovary, ¢ in. long, hoary-tomentose, 
tube cylindrical ; limb cupular truncate or shortly 5-toothed. Corolla 
usually glabrous ; tube curved, widened upwards, split on the hack, 
red or orange, rarely pink or white ; lobes 5, linear, reflexed, 3 in. long, 
green or yellowish. Fruit 4-hin. long, ovoid-oblong, crowned by the 
cup-shaped calyx, black when ripe. Albumen white, copious, with 
five linear teeth at the top surrounding the green embryo, which 
resembles a small nail } in. long with a flattened head representing 
the radicle. (‘Jalbot in Trees Bomb., ed. 2, p. 290). 
Abundant in all parts of the area and especially in the forest tracts, where 
it is very destructive to a great many kinds of trees, especially the 
mango, the mahua, and nim. It flowers chiefly during the cold season. 
Distris.: More or less throughout India, ascending to 3,000 ft. iny 
the W. Himalaya; also in Ceylon, Burma and Australia. 
In the Government garden at Saharanpur there used to exist a very 
interesting specimen in which this species of Loranthus played a 
prominent part as illustrating the occurrence of parasitism on the 
branches of an epiphyte (Ficus religiosa). This latter, having com- 
menced life as an epiphyte on the stem of a Wild Date Palm (Pheenix 
sylvestris), rapidly developed its aerial roots downwards so as ultima- 
tely to form a continuous casing round the entire trunk of the 
palm from a height of 20 feet or more. The presence of some 
kind of lichen growth on the wocdy branches of the Loranthus 
would have added a further link to the interesting symbiotic 
history of this remarkable composite specimen of vegetation. 
2. vIscuM, Linn; FI. Brit. Ind. v, 223. 
Shrubs, semi-parasitic on trees. Leaves flat and thick, or reduced 
to small scales or teeth. Flowers small, dicecious or monecious, 
fascicled or rarely solitary in the axils or on nodes, rarely ter- 
minal; bracts usually small; bracteoles free or connate, rarely 
obsolete. Perianth-tube of male-flowers short, solid, of the females 
adnate to ovary ; limb 3-4 lobed, lobes usually deciduous. Stamens 
3-4; anthers broad, sessile, adnate to the perianth-lobes ; cells 
confluent, opening by many pores. Ovary inferior; stigma 
sessile or subsessile, large, pulvinate. Fruit a succulent berry, the 
mesocarp soft and viscid. Embryo in fleshy albumen, solitary or 2 
in each seed.—Species about 30, in temp. and trop. regions. 
Branches Jeafy, terete . . ' : LON ey Sap dae Angee 
Branches leafless, flattened . : . . 2. V. articulatum. 
