VISCUM.] LORANTHACE&. 65 



1. V. monoicum, Roxb. Hort. Beng. 105 ; FL Ind. Hi, 763 ; 

 Brandis For. FL 393 ; Ind. Trees 552 ; F. B. I. v, 224 ; Watt E. D. ; 

 Gamble Man. 584 ; Prain Beng. PL 912 ; Cooke FL Bomb, ii, 552. 

 A large parasitic shrub. Branches slender, smooth, terete, slightly 



swollen at the nodes. Leaves shortly petioled, rather thin and usually 

 drying black, 1-5 in. long, variable in width, obliquely ovate or lan- 

 ceolate, often falcately curved, acute or acuminate ; basal nerves 

 3-5, prominent. Flowers minute, monoecious, greenish, arranged 

 in axillary sessile or shortly stalked usually 3-flowered fascicles ; 

 central flower of each fascicle usually male ; bracts truncate, apicu- 

 late. Perianth-lobes 3 or 4, triangular-oblong. Berry J-J in. long, 

 oblong, narrowed at both ends. 



Bundelkhand (Edgeworth) ; Forests of N. Oudh (Vicary, R. Thompson, 

 Duthie), Gorakhpur (Vicary). Flowers in May. DISTRIB. : Behar, 

 Chota Nagpur, W. and C. Bengal, Sundribuns ; also in the Nepal 

 and Sikkim Terai, Khasia Hills, Bombay Pres., S. India, Ceylon and 

 Burma. The Bundelkhand specimens collected by Edgeworth near 

 Banda on Zizyphus xylopyrus and Bassia latifolia indicate a more 

 robust habit of growth. The leaves are much broader and exces- 

 sively coriaceous, and the light brown colour to which they have 

 dried gives them a different aspect as compared with typical speci- 

 mens from other localities in N. India. Trimen says that in Ceylon 

 the plant dries to a pale yellowish-brown colour. Sir Joseph Hooker 

 was of opinion that the Banda plant might prove to be a different 

 species. The only available material now at Kew is, however, in- 

 sufficient to settle this point. 



2. V. articulatum, Burm. /. FL Ind. 311 ; F. B. I. v, 226 ; 

 Watt E. D. ; Kanjilal For. FL (ed. 2), 339 ; Gamble Man. 584 ; 

 Collett FL SimL 440 ; Prain Beng. PL 913 ; Brandis Ind. Trees 

 552 ; Cooke FL Bomb, ii, 553 ; V. attenuatum, DC. ; Brandis For. 

 FL 394. V. dichotomum, Don. Prod. 142. V. opuntioides Heyne ; 

 Roxb. FL Ind. Hi, 763. Vern. Budu, pand. 



A much- branched parasitic leafless shrub forming pendulous tufts 6 in. 

 to 3 ft. long. Branches jointed, the internodes 1-2 in. long, flattened 

 somewhat narrowed at each end, readily disarticulating, pale-green 

 when fresh, yellowish-brown when dry and longitudinally furrowed,. 

 Flowers monoecious, very minute, 3-4-merous, very shortly stalked, 

 1-6 together in fascicles at the nodes, each with a cupular bract at 

 the base. Perianth of male flowers reflexed. Female flowers 2- 

 bracteolate, the perianth-lobes erect, triangular. Berry J in. in diam., 

 subglobose, greenish-yellow, smooth. 



P 



