Oscuta.] COSVOLVULACFJE. 101 



Very common within the area, nnd often very destructive to small trees 

 and shrubs if left to itself . Flowers Sep.- Feb. Distrib. Throughout 

 India and up to 8,000 ft. on the Himalaya, extending to Ceylon, Burma, 

 Malaya and China. 



C. angmima of Edgeworth, which is treated as a variety in the Fl. Brit. 

 India, differs only by having muoh smaller flowers. Between this and 

 WtJlioh'a C. granditiora Mr. Clarke remarks that the chain of interme- 

 diates is nearly complete. The seeds are carminative, and the plant is 

 eaten by cattle and goats. The seeds of Cuscuta germinate on the 

 ground, but as soon as they have secured a footing on the host-plant 

 the stem is liberated ifrom the rooting portion and the plant becomes 

 wholly parasitic. 



2. ERYCIBE, Roxb. ; Fl. Brit. Ind. iv, 180. 



Scandent or diffuse shrubs, rarely erect trees, shoots rusty-tomen- 

 t>se. Leaves entire, coriaceous. Flowers small, in axillary or 

 terminal racemose or panicled cymes ; bracts small, lanceolate. 

 Sepals subequal, orbicular, coriaceous, adpressed to the base of the 

 fruit. Carolla white or yellowish, hairy outside ; tube shortly cam- 

 panulate; limb plicate in bud ; lobes imbricate, deeply bifid, the cen- 

 tral portion of each thickened. Stamens on the throat of the corollae 

 subincluded, filaments short, anthers ovate-lanceolate. Ovary 

 globose, 1-celled, 4-ovuled, style none ; stigma large, 5-orl0-ridged. 

 Fruit an ovoid or ellipsoid 1-seeded berry. Seed glabrous ; albumen 

 scanty, irregularly intruded between the plicate fleshy cotyledons. — 

 Species about 12, in Asia and trop. Australia. 



E. paniculata Roxb. Cor. PI. ii, 31, t. 159; Fl. Ind. i, 585 ; Bran- 

 ds For. Fl. 344; Ind. Trees 4-83 ; F.B. I.iv, ISO ; Watt E. D. ; Gamble 

 Man. Ind. Timb. 505 ; train Beng. PI. 724 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb, ii, 225. 



A large climbing evergreen shrub, or occasionally a small erect tree ; 

 branches lonir, more or less angular, clothed when young with reddish- 

 brown tomentum. Leaves 3-5 in. long, elliptic-oblong or obovate-oblong, 

 abruptly acuminate, narrowed towards the base into a short petiole 

 glabrous or nearly so ; main lateral nerves 4-6 pairs, arcuate. Flowers 

 yellow, in long terminal or (occasionally) axillary panicles, densely 

 rusty-tomentoee. Calyx clothed outside with reddish-brown tomentum 

 and more or less stellate-pubescent. Sepals £ in. long, orbicular. 

 Carolla £ in. long, tube broadly funnel-shaped ; lobes 5, bifid, hairy 

 rn the back below the division, margins plicate. Anthers with a lung 

 curved apiculate connective. Berry £ in. in diam., subglobose or ellip- 

 soid, supported on the persistent calyx, black and pulpy when ripe. 



Sub-Himalayan tracts of Pilibhit, Northern Oudh and Gorakhpur, also in 

 Bundelkhand. Flowers May to Nov. Distrib. From Nepal eastwards 

 ascending to 4,000 ft. on Himalaya, and from Bengal and Central Pro- 



