148 LXXXIII. ASCLEPIADACEjE. 



Konkan: Law], Siocksl, Bahelll; Elepbanta, Bafzell^- Gihxon. Df.ccan : widely, 

 Woudrow; Pooua, Woodrou' ; Eliakam near Poona, i^Azca! S. M. Countky : Belgaum, 

 Bhiva !, Cool-e\, BitcJiie, 436! Kanara: Talbot ; Kala nadcli, L'itchie, 430 !— Distrib. 

 Throughout India ; Cejlon. 



3. PERIPLOCA, Linn. 



Ex'ect or twining shrubs, sometimes leafless. LeaA^es when present 

 opposite. Flowers in lax axillai'y or terminal cymes. Calyx 5-partite. 

 Corolla rotate; lobes 5, usually bearded inside, overlapping to the right; 

 corona a 10-lobed ring arising from the corolla a little above the 

 stamens, often produced behind the stamens into 5 subulate or branched 

 processes. Stamens inserted a little above the base of the corolla 

 within the corona ; filaments fi'ee, broad, short; anthers bearded on the 

 back or at the base, conniving over and adhering to the sfyle-apex, the 

 connective produced into an apiculus bj which they are usually connate 

 at the tips ; pollen-masses in pairs in each cell (20 in all), granular. 

 Style-apex convex or subtrunoate. Follicles smooth. Seeds comose. — 

 DiSTKiB. S. Europe, Asia, Africa ; species about 12. 



1. Periploca aphylla, D(caisne,inJacquem. Voy. 5o?. (1844) p. 109, 

 t. 116. An erect branched milky shrub, very commonly leafless; stems 

 many, 6-10 ft. long, rarely as thick as a goose-quill, twiggy, glabrous; 

 bark greenish, rugosely striate. Leaves when present \ in. long, ovate- 

 oblong, acute, thick, nerveless. Flowers fragrant, numerous, in glabrous 

 cymes (often opposite) g-1 in. long and broad, on short thick peduncles 

 or branched from the base ; bracts ovate-oblong, subobtuse, with scarious 

 margins, breaking off about the middle and leaving the lower thick 

 portion ; buds globose. Calyx ^ in. long, glabrous ; segments -^ in. 

 long, broadly ovate-oblong, obtuse, with scarious margins. Corolla 

 greenish outside, dark-purple within ; tube very short ; lobes ^-J in. 

 long, oblong, obtuse, densely bearded inside near the apex, reflexed ; 

 corona-lobes 5 in. long, the basal portion transversely oblong, truncate, 

 the apical portion fiUforra, recurved at the apex. Filaments of the 

 stamens glabrous; anthers deltoid-ovate, hairy on the back. Follicles 

 on short thick peduncles, widely divergent, 3-4 by \ in., rigid, woody, 

 terete, pointed. Seeds i in. long; coma 1 in. lone. Fi. B. I. v. 4, 

 p. 12; Aitch. Pb. & Sind PI. p. 90 ; Talb. Trees, Bomb. ed. 2, p. 233; 

 IVoodr. in Journ. Bomb. Nat. v. 12 (1898) p. 166 ; Watt, Diet. Econ. 

 Prod. V. 6, parti, p. 140. — Flowers: Mar.-Apr. Tern, lianslwr. 



In tlie Bombay Presidency confined ap])arcnt]y to Sind. Sind: Sfocksl, Vicori/l; 

 Thano-Bula-Kluni, Woodrow. — Distrib. India (Panjiib) ; Afj^hanistan, Pehichistan, 

 Persia, Arabia, Egypt. 



Tlie milky juice is used in Sind as an oxIitiihI jipplicafion to tumors, the fibre of 

 the fitpins for niaking ropes for wells, and tin' fr.igrnnt flov>ers are eaten, tasting, 

 according to Stocks, like raisins. Sec Watt, ]Jict. Econ. Prod. I.e. 



4. TOXOCARPUS, Wight c<: Arn. 



Twining shrubs. Jjcaves o])])Ofeite. Flowers small, in axillary dicho- 

 tomous paniculate cymes. Calyx minute, 5-parlite. Corolla-tube sliort; 

 lobes 5, linear-oblong, reiurAcd, glabi'ous, o\erlapping to the left ; corona 

 stamina!, of 5 dorsally flattened lobes arising from the back of the 

 lil;inH'n1s,'aUernating w ith the corolhi-lobcs. Stamens inserted at the 



