LXXXIII. ASCLEPIADACE.!. 153 



the lower nodes; stems numerous, long, much-branched, slender, glabrous. 

 Leaves deciduous, l|-3^ by ^-5 in., linear or linear-lanceolate, acute, 

 thin, pale-green, glabrous, base acute or rounded ; petioles 4-| in long, 

 very slender, ilowers large, strikingly handsome, drooping, in pedun- 

 culate lateral subumbellate or racemose few (usually 2-4) -flowered 

 cymes longer than the leaves ; peduncles long, sometimes reaching 1| in. 

 or more, slender ; pedicels -^-| in. long, filiform, thickened upwards. 

 Calyx glabrous, divided nearly to the base ; segments 5, oblong-lanceolate, 

 acute, I in. long, glandular inside. Corolla pale rose-colored or nearly 

 white, glabrous, more than 1 in. across when expanded, saucer-shaped ; 

 tube scarcely any, the mouth with a densely pubescent ring ; limb | in. 

 long ; lobes | in. long, deltoid, acute, conspicuously ciliate, veined with 

 purple ; corona staminal, the lobes |-in. long, ovate-lanceolate, acun)inate, 

 with incurved entire subulate tips. Anthers with inllexed membranous 

 deltoid tips ; pollen-masses 1 in each cell, pendulous. Style-apex slightly 

 convex. i"'ollicles lg-2^ in. long, ovoid-lanceolate, tapering to a point, 

 glabrous. Seeds very numerous, ^ in. long, broadly ovate, flat, the 

 margins thin, often minutely and obscurely denticulate near the base, 

 black ; coma | in. long. M. B. I. v. 4, p. 17 ; Grab. Cat. p. 121 ; Dalz. 

 & Gibs. p. 150 ; AVight, Contrib. p. 54 ; Trim. Tl. Cevl. v. 3, p. 147 ; 

 Aitch. Pb. & Sind PI. p. 91 ; Woodr. in Journ. Bomb.lS^at. v. 12 (1898) 

 p. 166 ; Watt, Diet. Econ. Prod. v. 5, p. 675. Periploca esculenta, 

 Linn. f. Suppl. p. 168 ; Eoxb. Cor. PI. v. 1, p. 13, 1. 11. — Flowers : Dec. 

 Vern. Diallidni. 



KoNKAN : Law ! Deccan : Poona, on the river bank near the Sangam, Cooke \, 

 Woodrowl S. M. Country : Be]ga,\im, Bitchie, 429 I Kanaka: Law] Sind: Stocks, 

 543 I, Cooke !, BholaPuran ! — Distrib. Throughout the plains and lower hills of ludia, 

 usually near water ; Ceylon, Java. 



The fruit is said to be eaten in Sind, where the plant is plentiful. The milky juice 

 and the roots are used medicinally. See Watt, Diet. Econ. Prod. 1. c. 



Var. WalllcJiii. Follicles short, li by 1 in., oblong, rounded at both 

 ends. Oxystchna WaUichti (sp.), Wight, Contrib. (1834) p. 54 ; DC. 

 Prodr. V. 8 (1844) p. 543. 



Note. — The follicles of the variety Wallkhii differ very much from those of the 

 specimen of Oxijstelma esculentum in the British Museum collected by Konig on the 

 Coromandel coast in 1774, and which is regarded as E. Browu's type of the genus 

 Oxystchna and of the species esculentum. The follicles of that specimen are ovoid- 

 lanceolate, 2^ by ^ in., tapering to a point, while the follicles of Wight's 0. Wallichii 

 are broad, oblong, very blunt and rounded at both ends, 1^ by 1 in. The description 

 of the follicles of Periploca esculenta, Linn. f. (Suppl. p. 168), is meagre and indefinite. 

 They are described as glabrous, oblong, inflated, a description which does not suit 

 the follicles of Konig's specimen, which was apparently Linnajus's type. There are 

 no follicles with Liniia?us'8 specimens in Linn£eus's Herbarium, nor are there any 

 follicles with Roxburgh's Coromandel specimens. R. Brown follows Linna;us f. in 

 describing the follicles. Roxburgh, whom R. Brown cites, gives an excellent figure 

 (Cor. PI. V. 1, p. 13, 1. 11), but does not show the follicles, which he follows Linnajus f. 

 in describing as oblong, inflated. Wight (Contrib. p. 54) assumes that Linnanis and 

 R. Brown meant the plant with tapering follicles, but as far as the description goes, 

 Linna?us may just as well have intended 0. Wallichii. Mr. N. E. Brown, in Dyer, 

 Fl. Trop. Afr. v. 4, p. 382, apparently takes this latter view and considers the typical 

 0. esculentum to be the plant with rounded and obtuse follicles. I have followed 

 Wight as an undeniable authority on the question, which cannot, it seems to me, be 

 ever satisfactorily settled. 



