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VII. On a reformed Character of the Genus Cryptolepis, Brown. By Hugh 

 Falconer, M.D., Superintendent of the Hon. East India Company's Botanic 

 Garden at Saharunpore. Communicated by J. F. Royle, M.D., F.R.S., 

 F.L.S., 8fc. 



ReadJune 15th, 1841. 



Cryptolepis, R. Brown in Mem. Werner. Soc, vol. i. p. 69. {Vermischte Bo- 

 tanische Schrift., ii. p. 405.). 



Char. Gen. Ca/j/a? 5-partitus. Coro//a infundibuliformis, 5-tida; tubo intus processubus 

 5, carnosis, obtusis, inclusis, cum limbi laciniis alternantibus, instructo; fauce nuda. 

 Stamina imo coroUae tubo inserta, inclusa; filamenta brevissima, distincta; antheree 

 sagittatae, dorso penicillato-barbatse, basi stigmatis margin! adhaerentes. Masses polli- 

 nis solitariae, granulosae, corpusculi glanduljeformis appendiculae lineari tenuissimse ap- 

 plicitae. Ovaria 2. Stylus brevissimus. Stigma dilatatum, margine attenuatum, apiculo 

 conico. Squamulce hypogyrm nullae. FoUiculi divaricatissimi, ventricosi, acuti, recti. 

 Semina ad umbilicum comosa. 



Frutex volubilis, glaberrimus, succo lacteo scatens ; foliis oppositis, breve petiolatis, late ellip- 

 ticis, cum acumine subulato brevi, supra late virentibus, subtus albido-glauds, transverse 

 venosis ; petiolis supra basin articulatis ; corymbis axillaribus, breve pedunculatis, cur- 

 tatis ; floribus subsessilibus, majusculis, citrinis, corollae limbo patulo, segmentis ligulatis. 



■Cryptolepis Buchanani, Roem. et Schult. Syst., iv. p. 409. 



C. reticulata, Royle Illustr., p. 270. 



Nerium reticulatum, Roxb. Flor. Ind., ii. p. 9. 



Hab, passim in India Orientali. 



Mr. Brown, in his celebrated monograph, in the ' Memoirs of the Wernerian 

 Society,' refers the genus Cryptolepis, which he there establishes, to the Apo- 

 cyneoe, placing it next to Apocynum. He has been followed in this respect by 

 all subsequent systematic authors. I find the same position assigned to it by 

 the latest authorities, such as Endlicher, Lindley, &c., who seem to have taken 

 Mr. Brown's definition on trust, from not having had an opportunity of veri- 

 fying it by an appeal to specimens of the plant. But besides these authors,. 

 Dr. Wight, the last writer on the Indian Asclepiadece, in his excellent Mono- 



