134 Apocynacecr. {Vallaris. 



1 2-1 8 in., very slender, cylindrical, pendulous, becoming com- 

 pletely everted after dehiscence. 



Low country up to 3000 ft.; common. Fl. April; greenish-white. 



In the Eastern Tropics generally. 



The follicles hang in pendulous clusters, and the whole inflor. falls 

 together. The wood is very light and soft, pale yellowish - white ; its 

 principal use is for coffins. The bark is a valuable astringent tonic, much 

 used in fevers; it is an official drug in the Indian Pharmacopoeia. 



12. PARSONSIA, Br. 



Perennial twiner, 1. opp., fl. rather small, in axillary corym- 

 bose cymes; cal.-tube short, segm. short; cor.-tube short, 

 inflated, naked in throat, lobes longer than tube, oblong, 

 overlapping to right; disk of 5 triangular lobes; stam. 5, 

 inserted at base of cor.-tube, fill, spirally twisted together, 

 anth. exscrted, connate to form a tube adnate to stigma, cells 

 prolonged into spurs at the base; carp, connate, ov. 2-celled 

 with very numerous ovules in each cell, style long, stigma 

 ovoid, bifid, fruit dry, linear, at last septicidally 2-valved, the 

 valves also separating from septum ; seeds very numerous, 

 narrowly linear, with a coma of silky hair more than twice its 

 length; endosperm scanty. — Sp. 12; i m Fl. B. Ind. 



P. spiralis, Wall. Cat. n. 1631 (1828). 

 Heligme spiralis, Thw. Enum. 193. C. P. 1862. 

 Fl. B. Ind. iii. 650. Wight, Ic. t. 1303 {H. Rheedit). 



Stems stout, long, twining, glabrous, 1. rather large, i-j in., 

 oval or lanceolate-oval, usually rounded at base, acuminate, 

 acute, glabrous, thin, petiole J in., fl. pedicellate, cymes pani- 

 culate-corymbose, peduncles 1^-3 in., glabrous, bracts very 

 small; cal.-lobes narrowly triangular, acute; cor.-lobes fleshy, 

 obtuse; cone of anth. oblong, bluntly pointed; fruit about 

 6 in,, linear, sharply pointed, cylindrical, glabrous, the con- 

 stituent carp, at length separating except at points ; seed 

 about \ in., beaked. 



Low country; very common. Fl. August ; purplish-green. 

 Also in India, Malaya, and China. 

 Very like an Asclcpiadca in habit. 



13. VAZ.Z.ARZS, Biirm. 



Twining shrub, 1. opp., fl. rather large, in axillary panicu- 

 late cymes ; cal. deeply cut into 5 lanceolate segm.; cor.-tube 

 very short, c}-lindrical, lobes 5, shallow, rounded, spreading, 



