35 ASCLEPIAS TINGENS. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Stem twining, woody, with numerous twining, smooth branches, 
extending far over whatever supporters they meet with. 
Bark pretty smooth, when young brownish ; when old ash- 
coloured. 
Leaves opposite, petioled, cordate, entire, pointed, smooth on both 
sides ; from three to six inches long, and from two to four 
broad. 
Petioles about an inch long, channelled, smooth. 
Umbels subaxillary, short-peduncled, compound. 
Pedicels rather longer than the peduncles, one-flowered, smooth, 
diverging in all directions. 
Flowers numerous, pale yellow, or cream colour when they first 
expand, but grow gradually darker. 
Calyx to the base five-cleft. 
Corol: Tube as long as the fructification ; on the inside run five 
double ridges, ciliated with short brown hairs: Border ex- 
panding; divisions obliquely-oval. 
Nectary as in the genus, with the cordate divisions of its mouth 
covering the stamina, and lower part of the stigma. 
Stamina: Receptacles affixed to the base of the stigma: Anthers 
nearly erect. 
Pistil: Style single. Stigma globular, smooth, pearl-coloured, half 
hid in the mouth of the tube ; round its under side ten pits 
are found corresponding with the ten anthers. 
OBSERVATIONS. . 
A large, twining, shrubby plant; brought from Pegu to the 
Botanic Garden at Calcutta, by Dr. Buchanan. Flowering time 
the rainy season. 
Dr. Buchanan informed me, that from the leaves of this plant 
the Burmah people prepare a greendye. It is probable that those 
people forgot to inform the Doctor that it was necessary to dye 
the cloth yellow, either before or after the application of the 
colour prepared from the leaves of this plant. 
240. ASCLEPIAS TENACISSIMA. 
Perennial, twining. Leaves long, petioled, exactly cordate, fine- 
pointed, both sides soft with down. 
drooping. Genitalia obovate, hid in the tube of the corol. Follicles 
ovate-oblong, obtuse, tomentose. 
Panicles interfoliaceous 
DESCRIPTION. 
Stem perennial, twining over the trees, Kc. to a very great extent, 
and in general about as thick as a large ratan. Branches few ; 
young shoots downy. 
juice, which thickens into an elastic substance, very like 
From wounds there exudes a milky 
caouchouc, and rubs out black lead pencil lines as readily, 
and I think may be reckoned an additional species thereof. 
Leaves opposite, (the pairs in luxuriant shoots fit for flax) very 
remote, petioled, exactly-cordate, fine acute-pointed, entire, 
very soft, with much fine down on both sides ; general . 
length from 4 to 6 inches, and from 3 to 4 broad. 
Petioles round, downy, from two to four inches long. 
Panicles interfoliaceous, large, drooping, composed of alternate 
ASCLEPIAS TENACISSIMA. 36 
drooping branches, of numerous, small umbellets, of beautiful 
greenish yellow flowers. 
Bractes minute, two or three under the insertion of the fascicles 
of flowers, which compose the umbellets. 
Calyx deeply five-cleft ; divisions rather more than half the length 
of the tube of the corol, and downy on the outside. 
Cordl salver-shaped ; divisions of the border obliquely oval, with 
apexes rounded, greenish toward the centre, with the ex- 
terior half yellow. 
Column of the fructification short-clavate, or obovate, about as long 
as the tube of the corol, with the white apex of the common 
stigma naked. 
Follicles ovate-lanceolate, obtuse, nearly round, with a groove on 
the inside ; clothed with much soft velvet-like green down, 
about six inches long, and from four to five in circumference 
where thickest. 
Seeds very numerous ; obovate, thin, with a broad thin membra- 
naceous margin, and long soft silky pappus. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
This most elegant and very useful species, was first made known 
to us by Mr. William Roxburgh, who found it growing wild on 
the above mentioned hills in 1800, and by him introduced into 
the Botanic Garden at Calcutta, where the plants thrive luxuri- 
antly, blossom in April, and ripen their seed about ten months 
thereafter. 
The bark of the young luxuriant shoots yields a large portion of 
beautifully fine silky fibres, with which the mountaineers of Raje- 
mahl make their bow-strings, on account of its great strength and 
durability. 
During the rains they cut the shoots into lengths at the inser- 
tion of the leaves, peel off the bark, and with their nails, or a bit 
of stick on a board, remove the pulpy part. A person accustomed 
to this work will, I am told, cleanas far as six pounds of the fibres 
in a day. 
These fibres, and those of the bark of the Malay plant Battang 
culloway or poolas, are by far the strongest (I mean in the vege- 
table kingdom) I have met with; far exceeding those of the 
leaves of Sanseviera zeylanica. A line made of common hemp, for 
a standard, broke with 158 pounds when dry, and with 190 
when wet, the average of several trials. 
A similar line of this substance, broke with 248 when dry, and 
343 when wet, while one of Battang calloway broke with 240 
when dry, and 278 when wet. 
241. STAPELIA UMBELLATA. 
Umbel terminal. Corol five-parted, smooth; segments trian- 
gular, with margins revolute. Stem and branches erect, four- 
sided, with the angles dentate. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Stems perennial, erect, with erect branches, four-sided, smooth, 
angles sharp, and dentate, height of the whole plant about 
a foot. 
