N. 0. L0RANTHA0E.2E. 1117 



Habitat : — Sikkim Himalaya ; Khasia Mts.; Ganges Delta; 

 Ouclli ; Nilghiri or Kurg hills. 



A large, parasitic shrub. Branches dichotomous, leafy, 

 terete, slightly swollen at the nodes. Leaves rather thin and 

 usually drying black, l-5in. long, very variable in breadth, 

 petioled, obliquely ovate or falcate, acute or acuminate, 3-5 

 nerved ; nerves often strong. Flowers monoecious, in axillary, 

 sessile or shortly peduncled fascicles, l-3in., minute, greenish ; 

 the lateral usually female, central male or absent, sometimes 

 appearing spicate from terminating leafless shoots, deciduous. 

 Bracts cuspidate. Perianth-lobes 3 or 4, triangular oblong. 

 Fruit oblong, of the size of a pea (£-Jin. long), truncate, 

 smooth, yellowish ( Kurz ), " blackish-brown " ( Brandis \ 



Mr. Duthie writes in his Flor. Up. Gang. PI., FIT. p. 65— 



The Bundelkhand specimens collected by Edgeworth near Banda on Zi&y- 

 phus xylopyrus and Bassia latifolia indicate a more robust habit of growth. 

 The leaves are much broader and excessively coriaceous, and the light-brown 

 colour to which they have dried, gives them a different aspect as compared 

 with typical specimens 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, insufficient to settle this 

 point. 



Uses : — The leaves of a viscum, doubtfully referred to this 

 species, growing on Nux-Vomica trees in the neighbourhood of 

 Cuttack, have been found to possess poisonous properties, 

 similar to those of the tree on which it grows. The subject was 

 investigated by Sir William O'Shaughnessy, who detected in the 

 powdered leaves the presence of strychnine and brucine. 



The powder of the dry leaf was used as a substitute for 

 these drugs in the Hospital of the Medical College, Calcutta 

 with complete success, in doses of one to three grains thrice 

 daily. (Bengal Disp.) 



1108. V. orientals, Willd. h.f.b.l, v. 224 ; Roxb. 

 715. 



Fenz.:— Banda (H., Santal. and Kol.) ; Gurbel (Gond) ; 

 Sundara badinika (Tel.). 



