294 LXXXV. ASCLEPIADEZ (BROWN). | Calotropis. 
- 16. CALOTROPIS, R. Br.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. ii. 754. 
Calyx 5-partite; sepals broadly ovate. Corolla 5-lobed to more 
than half-way down, rotate-campanulate or with reflexed lobes. Corona 
of 5 compressed lobes, shortly cleft into two lobules at their top, with 
an upcurved and involute spur at their base, adnate throughout their 
length to the staminal-column as far as the base of the anthers. 
Anthers short and broad, with short, broad, membranous appendages 
inflexed over the rim of the pentagonal apex of the style, which is 
depressed in the centre. Pollen-masses solitary in each anther-cell, 
pendulous, attached by short slender caudicles to the pollen-carrier. 
Follicles large, with a thick spongy-fibrous mesocarp, and parchment- 
like endocarp, not echinate. Seeds ovate, plano-convex, crowned with 
a tuft of hairs.—Large shrubs or small trees, with opposite subsessile 
broad ieaves, and pedunculate umbelliform cymes arising from the side 
of the stem between the bases of the leaves. Flowers moderately large. 
Species 4, 3 confined to India, S. China, and the Malay Archipelago, the other 
extending into Africa, 
1. C. procera, Ait. Hort. Kew. ed. 2, ii. 78. A stout shrub, 
10-18 ft. high, all the youngest parts clothed with a white tomentum, 
becoming glabrous. Leaves on very short petioles or subsessile, 24-12 
in. long. 1$—7 in. broad, ovate, oblong-ovate, elliptic, or obovate, obtuse 
with a short abrupt point, base cordate, glabrous. Peduncles lateral 
and terminal, $~3 in. long, stout, branched or somewhat elongating 
and producing successive subumbellate clusters of 3-10 flowers, the 
young parts white-tomentose, becoming more or less glabrous; bracts 
+-} in. long, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, acute, deciduous ; pedicels 
2-1 in. long. Sepals 2-23 lin. long, 14-21 lin. broad. Corolla 
campanulate, #—1 in. in diam., 5-lobed to 2 the way down; lobes 4}-° 
lin. long, 35-44 lin. broad, ovate, acute, quite glabrous, white, with 
dark purple-brown tips. Coronal-lobes 24-3 lin. long, 2-24 lin. broad 
at the base, compressed, oblong, obliquely truncate or rounded and cleft 
into two short lobes at the top, minutely scabrous or pubescent down 
the back, which hasan upcurved and inrolled spur at the base. Follicles 
3-4 in. long, 24-3 in. thick, subglobose, obliquely ellipsoid or ovoid, 
obtuse or depressed at the apex, with a thick spongy or somewhat 
inflated pericarp. Seeds 3-34 lin. long, 2 lin. broad, plano-conve%, 
narrowly margined, minutely tomentose.—Bot. Reg. t. 1792; Decne. 
in DC. Prod. viii. 5385; A. Rich. Tent. Fl. Abyss. ii. 33; Bot. Mag. ¢. 
6859; Vatke in Linnea, xl. 213; Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Ind. iv. 18; Wight, 
Ic, iv. 1. 17, t. 1278; Bentl. & Trim. Med. Pl. iii. t. 176; Krause 
in Engl. Jahrb. xiv. 412; Penzig in Atti Congr. Bot. Interna 
1892, 348; K. Schum. in Engl. Pf. Ost-Afr. C. 323; in Engl. « 
Prantl, Pflanzenfam. iv. ii. 232, fig. 67, E-G, and 239 ; in Engl. Jahrb. 
xxx. 385; and in Ann. Istit. Bot. Roma, vii. 38; Henriques in Bolet. 
Soc. Brot. xiii. 144; Hiern in Cat. Afr. Pl. Welw. i. 687; Schwein: 
furth in Hohnel, Zum Rudolph-See u. Stephanie-See, Sonderabdr. ®. 
C. heterophylla, Decne. in Ann. Sc. Nat. sér. 2, ix. 329, not ° 
