424 



ASCLEPIADE^. 



Microscop 



—All the proper cortical tissue shows 



uniform parenchyme, not distinctly separated into liber, medullary rays 

 and mesophloeum. On making a longitudinal section hoAYCver, one can 

 observe some elongated laticiferous vessels filled with the colourless 

 concrete milky juice. In a transverse section, they are seen to be 

 irregularly scattered through the bark^ chiefly in its inner layers, yet 

 even here in not very considerable number. They are frequently SO 

 mkm. in diameter and not branched. 



The wood is traversed by small medullary rays, which are obnoiis 



only in the longitudinal section. 



parenchymatous 



is loaded with large, ovoid starch granules. Tannic 



to any considerable amount, except in the outermost suberous layer 



Chemical Composition— The root has not been submitted to any 

 adequate chemical examination. Its taste and smell appear not to 

 depend on the presence of essential oil, so far as may be inferred from 

 microscopic examination ; and it is probable the aroma is due to a body 

 of the cumarin class. According to Scott,^ the root yields by simple 

 distillation with water a steroptene, which is probably the substance 

 obtained by Garden in 1837, and supposed to be a volatile acid. 



Uses 



The drug is reputed to be alterative, tonic, diuretic and 



diaphoretic, but is rarely employed, at least in England. 



CORTEX MUDAR. 



Cortex CalotToiMis; Mudar; F. Ecovce de racine de Mudar. 



Botanical Origin— The drug under notice is furnished by two 

 nearly allied species of Calofropis, occupying somewhat distinct geo- 



graphical areas, but not distinguished from each other i 

 languages of India. These plants are :— 



1. Oalotropis vvoceva R. Brown (G, Hamiltonii Wi 



green, 



downy 



shrub, 6 or more feet high, with dark 

 beneath, abounding in acrid milky juice. 



It is a native of the drier parts of India, as the Deccan, the Upper 

 I^rovinces of Bengal, the Punjab and Sind, but is quite unknown in the 

 soutliern provinces ; it also extends to Persia, Palestine, the Sinaitic 



Sahara, to Nubia, Abyssinia, the lake Tsad and through the Sudan. 

 l^astly it has been naturalized in the West Indies. , 



4^ ^- mgantea K Brown {A sclepias qiqantea Willd.), a large erect 

 shrub 6 to 10 feet high, with stem as thick as a man's leg,^ much 

 resembling preceding, indigenous to Lower Bengal and the southern 

 parts ot India, Ceylon, the Malayan Peninsula, and the Moluccas. . 



J 



respective areas.^ 



" The wS'-'Pt"".^" "™^ ^^i7««^ea. 



in 



appen(la;res of corona with a blti^i^ "Rj 

 point. %e Fig. in Bentjey and TnmeD, 



Med. Plants, part 25 (1S77)' fl^\ver- 



a fjlqavfca, corolla opening ^^'^^^ ^^.^^g 

 tuds bluntly conical or oblong, appenci^fc 



of corona rounded. 



'^A 



