272 ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BOTANY OF [ Asclepiadee. 
in Java, according to Dr. Horsfield, S. colubrina is so employed; and in India a fourth 
kind of Strychnos called Naga-Musadi (Roxb.), is employed for the same purposes. 
The seeds of S. potatorum, Nirmulee of natives, are sold in every bazar for the purpose 
of clearing muddy water. Bitter almonds are said to be employed in Egypt for the 
same purpose, as those of the Kola are in Africa. Notwithstanding the poisonous 
nature of the seeds, the pulpy part of the fruits of some species is eaten by the natives 
of the countries where they are indigenous, as those of §. innocua in Egypt, of 
S. pseudo-quina in Brazil, and of S. potatorum in India, and even that of S. Nux Vomica 
by birds. (Roxb.) To these exceptions to the general hurtful nature of this order must 
be added, Melodinus monogynus, and Willoughbeia edulis in India, Carissa edulis in N ubia, 
and the Cream fruit of Sierra Leone; all of which yield edible fruit, while that of 
Carissa Carandas is also eaten in India and made into a jelly forms the best substitute . 
for that most commonly employed in Europe. 
114. ASCLEPIADEZ.* 
The plants of this family having been separated by Mr. Brown from Apocyne@, on 
account of the peculiar nature of their sexual apparatus, necessarily partake in the 
affinities of that family, and have much the same character though a wider range of 
distribution. Thus, though we find them in abundance in the tropical parts: of the 
world, they also occur in considerable numbers beyond their limits, as at the Cape. of 
Good Hope and in New Holland, and to the North in Europe, Siberia, North America, 
and Japan. 
At the Cape there are numerous species of Stapelia, so in the drier parts of the 
‘ Peninsula, which, like the arid parts of N. India, we have seen to. resemble the Flora 
of Africa, we have species of Caralluma, Boucerosia, and fMitchinia, which were 
formerly referred to Stapelia. On the arid banks of the Jumna, which has been shewn 
to be the limit to which the plants extend haying a resemblance to the African Flora, 
we have Demia extensa, and from thence extending to Umballa, a large town in the 
plains to the N.W. of Saharunpore: the other species of the genus being found in 
Egypt and Arabia. Leptadenia spartium I found on the banks of the Jumna, where it 
had before been found by Dr. Hamilton; the other species being found in the 
Peninsula and in tropical and Northern Africa. Pentatropis microphylla, of which the 
first species was mentioned by Mr. Brown in Salt’s Abyssinia, and Hemidesmus indicus 
occur in the same situation with Calotropis Hamiltonii of Wight, which was considered by. 
: Dr. 
_ * The Indian plants of this family having been described and (published by Dr. Wight, in his “Contributions 
to the Botany of India,” it is necessary to observe, that his. names are those which have been adopted in this 
work ; and as Dr.Wight has given a copious list of Synonymes, under each of the older plants, little difficulty. 
will be experiencedin ascertaining those previously described. The Author feels much indebted to Dr. Wight 
for having described the Asclepiadece in his collection ; and all Botanists must do so, for his having undertaken 
so difficult and numerous a family as the Indian Asclepiadee, of which many no doubt still-remain to be 
discovered, as there appear to be several undescribed species among the late General Hardwicke’s Drawings. 
