ASCLEPIADACEiE. 285 



Ccropcgia pusilla Wight; F.B.I, iv 66, L l ; the 

 Little Lantern Flower. 



Stem erect, 2 to 5 inches, rising from a tuber I inch or 

 more broad, and slightly flattened. Leaves crowded, 

 I to 3 by i/io to 1/3 inch, with one strong nerve, erect, 

 minutely scabrous on the midrib and margins, otherwise 

 glabrous : stem very distinctly swollen at the nodes. 

 Peduncle usually displaced to one side of its subtending 

 leaf, and with a very small linear bract at the base, ij^ 

 inches, erect, slightly pubescent. Flowers solitary as 

 a rule, erect. Sepals J^ to J4 inch, linear. Base of 

 corolla 1/3 by 1/5 inch, ovoid : tube 1/2 by i/io inch, 

 five-angled : window portion 1/4 by 1/5 inch, the lobes 

 1/20 inch wide, the openings a longish diamond shape, 

 glabrous. Corona dark purplish brown, with ten dark 

 purple, white-ciliate, teeth 1/50 inch long, and five linear 

 processes 1/16 inch, meeting above the yellow central 

 mass. Stamens thick, erect and separate from the stylar 

 head except at the base : polliniums erect, attached 

 in pairs at the base. Follicles 2 inches, swollen in the 

 middle, t. 191. Wight Ic. t. 1261. 



In the grass of the downs, coming up after the first rains. 

 Nilgiris : on the downs Ootacamund to Pykara flowering 

 May or July. Bourne 4780, 4782. 



Gen. Dist. Also on Anamalais {Beddome). Not seen on Pulneys. 



Ccropcgia sphcnanantha Wight and Arnott, Wall. 

 Cat. 8138 ! and Wight's Herb. Prop. 1513 ! ; F.B.I, as C. 

 elegans Wall., iv 68. L 10 (C. elegans Wall., Cat. 8135 !). 

 Stem very slender running in grass. Leaves iK 

 by /^ {% to ^) inch, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 

 acute or shortly acuminate, glabrous : stalk J4 inch. 

 Flowers solitary, or pedicelled two or three together, 

 on axillary peduncles of H inch. Sepals linear, ^ inch, 

 green. Corolla I to l% inches : crown hemispheric. 



