'2S PENTANDRIA DiGYNiA. Ceropegia. 



Leaves obovate, short- petioles, fleshy. Umbels short- 

 peduncled, few-flowered. 



Teling. Manchi, viz. good Mandu. 



It g;rows amongst bushes in hedges, &c. on dry, barren, 

 uncultivated ground and flowers during the hot sea- 

 son. 



Root tuberous, a little flattened like a turnip, with 

 several fibres from its base ; it is about as large as a 

 small apple. Stems twining, herbaceous, smooth, succu- 

 lent ; from 2 to 4 feet long. Leaves opposite, short-petiol- 

 ed, obovate, with a small point, entire, fleshy, size vari- 

 ous. Umbels lateral, length of the leaves, peduncled few- 

 flowered, direction various. Flowers pretty large, erect ; 

 tube greenish ; border purple. Calyx five toothed ; tooth' 

 lets acute, permanent. Corol one-petalled ; tube swelled 

 at the base, contracted about the middle, enlarging from 

 thence into a bell-shaped mouth. Border five-parted ; 

 segments linear, downy, purple, erect, tops united, gaping 

 at the sides. Nectary ; its body is already described in the 

 preliminary observations ; from each of its five divi- 

 sions, rises a curved tapering, filiform, sterile filament, of 

 about half the length of the tube. Anthers ?i\e pair, rest- 

 ing on the black pointed angles of the common stigma. 

 {Corpus truncatum.) Germs two united. Styles two, 

 united, short, thick. Stigma common large, peltate, five- 

 cornered, before the flower opens these corners adhere 

 firmly to five, incurved, yellow glandular parts of the nec- 

 tary, and between them are the anthers. It requires some 

 force to separate them, to have a view of the anthers ; 

 when the flower is afterwards fully blown, they separate 

 of themselves, the anthers are then seen poised, as it were, 

 on the five black, pointed angles of the stigma. Follicles 

 two, slender, singly about 3 or 4 inches long. 



Every part of this plant is eaten by the natives, either 

 raw or stewed in their curries. The fresh roots taste like 

 a raw turnip. 



