Cryptolepis.'] Asclepiadece. 145 



ovate, acute, slightly ciliate; cor. about \ in. diam., lobes oval, 

 very acute, wrinkled within; follicles 4-5 in. 



Low country up to 2500 ft. or higher, in grassy places, very common. 

 Fl. Feb.; dull purple, green outside. 



Throughout Peninsular India. 



Remarkably variable in the form of the leaves, which have often a 

 white variegation on the upper surface. C. P. 1864, from Jaffna (Gard- 

 ner), has very obtuse emarginate apiculate leaves, undulated on the 

 margins, but looks like some diseased state. 



The roots are much used as a tonic medicine, and the plant hence 

 called ' Sarsaparilla' by the English. They are included in both the 

 British and Indian official Pharmacopoeias. When fresh they have a 

 pleasant scent. 



2. CRVFTOIiEPIS, Br. 



Twining shrub, fl. moderate-sized, cymes axillary, branched; 

 cal. with 5 minute scales within, segm. 5, deep; cor. with short 

 tube, lobes 5, narrow, contorted, corona corolline, of 5 processes 

 above middle of tube; stam. inserted at base of cor.-tube, 

 fil. short, broad, very slightly connate at base, anth. small, 

 tips acuminate, connivent above the stigma, pollen-masses 

 granular, 2 in each cell ; stigma short, conical ; follicles short, 

 terete, divaricate; seeds compressed, with very long coma. — 

 Sp. 14; 3 in i^/. B. Ind. 



C. Buchanani, J^oem. &= Schult. Syst. iv. 409 (1819). Wel- 

 rukattana, S. 



Thw. Enum. 195. C. P. 2548. 



Fl. B. Ind. iv. 5. Wight, Ic. t. 494. 



A rather large shrubby twiner, branches cylindrical, 

 glabrous, dilated at nodes; 1. 3-4 in., oval-oblong, rounded 

 or subacute at base, very suddenly narrowed into a short 

 mucronate apex, quite glabrous, paler beneath, lat. veins 

 numerous, fine, horizontal, parallel, united by an intramarginal 

 one, petiole ^-f in. ; fl. on glabrous ped., cymes short, pani- 

 culate, bracts small, mucronate, with scarious borders, buds 

 pointed; cal, glabrous, segm. oval, subacute; cor. | in. diam., 

 lobes linear-oblong, subacute, follicles 2\-i\ in., tapering to 

 blunt point, somewhat dorsally compressed, glabrous; seeds 

 narrowed to apex, dull brownish-black. 



Low country to 3000 ft., rather common. Fl, May-Sept.; pale green. 



Throughout India and Burma. 



The wood is used in native medicine. 



Cryptostegia gratjcliflora, Br., a native probably of Trop. Africa, is 

 much grown^in gardens near the coast, and in the dry districts, as Jaffna, 

 Puttalam, &c., and is often found near the shore in a semi- wild state. 

 PART III. ^ 



