148 Asclepiade(s. \Caiotropis. 



By or in the borders of tanks, paddy fields, and streams in the dry 

 country; rather common. Fl. Dec-March; pale cream-coloured, veined 

 and stained with purplish-pink, column white. 



Also in India, Burma, and Java. 



Originally described from Koenig's specimens. Linn. fil. (1. c.) gives 

 the name 'Usepale'as that used in Ceylon. This is one of our most 

 beautiful plants, with its masses of large cup-shaped flowers drooping 

 over the water, in or by which it always grows. It would be well 

 worth cultivation, and is fond of clambering over old stumps, but 

 does not climb to any height. I never heard of any part being eaten 

 here, but it is employed by the native doctors as a remedy in hydrophobia. 

 Has a milky juice. 



6. CAZiOTROPZS, Br. 



Erect .shrub, 1. broad ; fl. large, cymes umbellate, extra- 

 axillary ; cal. of 5 distinct sep. ; cor. rotate or slightly cup- 

 shaped, lobes 5, very deep, spreading, valvatc ; column very 

 large and conspicuous, fil. completely connate ; pollen-masses 

 I in each cell, pendulous, flattened ; coronal processes very 

 large, erect, compressed, standing out as wide buttresses from 

 the column, with a large, thick, curved spur at the base, anth. 

 narrow, with a membranous inflexed tip ; stigma large, flat on 

 top, sharply 5-angled ; follicles short, broad, thick ; seeds 

 ovate, compressed, coma long. — Sp. 3; all in FL B. Ind. 



C. grig-antea, Br. in Ait. Hort. Kc^v., ed. 2, ii. 78 (181 1). Wara, S. 

 Manakkovi, Errukalai, Urkkovi, T. 



Herm. Mus. 34. Burm. Thes. 24. FL Zeyl. n. 112. Asclepias 

 gigafitea, L. Sp. PI. 214. Moon Cat. 20. Thw. Enum. 196. C. P. 1831. 

 Fl. B. Ind. iv. 17. Wight, 111. t. 155. Bot. Mag. t. 6862. 



An erect shrub or small tree, reaching 10 ft., bark yellowish- 

 white, furrowed, branches stout, cylindrical, more or less covered 

 with a very fine, adpressed, cottony pubescence ; 1. nearly 

 sessile, large, 4-8 in., oval-oblong or slightly obovate, cordate 

 at base, acute, rather thick, glaucous green, covered with a 

 very fine cottony tomentum which is easily removed and is 

 naturally deciduous on upper surface; fl. large, on long stout 

 ped., cymes bifurcate, irregularly subumbellate, peduncles 

 long, stout, coming off from between the leaves (not axillary), 

 bracts small, acuminate, deciduous; sep. oval, acute, cottony; 

 cor. i^-if in. diam., lobes triangular-oblong, subacute; follicles 

 3I-4 in., broad, thick, fleshy, somewhat corrugated, glabrous, 

 seeds very numerous. 



Waste ground and roadsides, &c., in the low country; very common, 

 and often gregarious, Fl. all the year ; pale violet or nearly white within, 

 greenish-white outside, column pale blue. 



Throughout India, Malaya, S. China. 



