ASCLEPIADACE^;. 



i. 255. — Various parts of the East Indies, both the continent 

 and islands. 



Root of many, long, thick, whitish, or light ash-coloured, fleshy 

 fibres, issuing from a small, hard, ligneous head. Stems several, 

 twining, slender, round, from 6 to 12 feet long; young parts downy. 

 Leaves opposite, petioled, linear, cordate-ovate ; those near the extre- 

 mities are narrower, all are entire ; above smooth, below downy ; from 

 2 to 3 inches long. Petioles about half an inch long, channelled. Um- 

 bels solitary, axillary, and alternate, generally compound. Peduncles 

 and pedicels twice the length of the petioles, round, downy. Invo- 

 lucres lanceolate. Flowers numerous, small, colour a mixture of bad 

 yellow, and orange. Calyx ; divisions lanceolate, very acute. Corolla 

 flat ; divisions oval. Follicles lanceolate, spreading, 3 or 4 inches long, 

 and about 2 in circumference, Roxb. — Roots acrid ; used on the 

 coast of Coromandel as a substitute for Ipccaeuhana. Dr. Roxburgh 

 found it to answer the same purpose as that drug, and had also very 

 favourable reports of it from others. Dr. J. Anderson, physician 

 general at Madras, confirms this ; it was used with great success in a 

 dysentery that was in his time epidemic in the British camp. No doubt 

 it is one of the most valuable medicines in India. In large doses it is 

 emetic ; in smaller doses often repeated it acts as a cathartic. Burnett 

 states it to be valuable as a sudorific, and to be peculiarly beneficial in 

 humoral asthma. 



CYNANCHUM. 



Corolla somewhat rotate, 5-parted. Coronet of appendages 

 consolidated, 5-20-lobed ; when 5-lobed with the segments op- 

 posite the anthers. Pollen-masses ventricose, pendulous. Stigma 

 usually apiculate, sometimes blunt, very rarely with a beak en- 

 closed below the summit. Follicles smooth. 



1148. C. Vincetoxicum R Br. mem. Wern. soc. i. 47 As- 



clepias Vincetoxicum Linn, sp.pl. 314. Fl. Dan. t. 849. Nees 

 and Eb. pi. wed. t. 208. — Sandy places in most parts of Eu- 

 rope except Great Britain. 



Root cylindrical, creeping. Stem 1-3 feet high, erect, round, with a 

 longitudinal downy line on each side. Leaves cordate-ovate, smooth. 

 Flowers whitish, somewhat nodding, in corymbose umbels, 3 times as 

 long as their common peduncle. Coronet 5-lobed. — An emetic and 

 purgative, once celebrated as an antidote to poisons ; whence its name. 



1149. C. monspeliacum Linn, sp.pl. 311. Cav. ic. i. t. 60. 

 Jacq. ic. ii. t. 340. RBr. 1. c. 44. — Sea coast of Italy, Spain, 

 South of France and Greece. 



Stem running, climbing, milky. Leaves stalked, roundish cordate, 

 with a semilanceolate contracted point. Flowers white or pink, axillary, 

 with branched peduncles. Segments of the corolla lanceolate, rather 

 blunt. Coronet tubular. — The inspissated juice is drastic, and known 

 officinally under the name of Montpelier Scammony. 



1150. C. ovalifolium Wight, asclep. 51. — Penang. 



A smooth twining plant. Leaves oblong-oval, not cordate, acuminate. 

 Cymes many-flowered. Peduncles longer than the petiole. Coronet 



542 



