3. Calotbopis.j 75. ASCLJSPIADACU^J. [5. Sabcostemma. 



1. C. gigailtea, R- Br. Palaii,'iL; Akaona, 8.; Akacn, 

 Kharw. \ Madar, H. ; Akanda, Beng. 



Sometimes a email tree with trunk 1 ft. girth, usually a 

 shrub with oblong-obovate coriaceous leaves white felted 

 beneath as also are the branches and peduncles. Fls. reddish 

 or light-purple or lilac, coronal processes shorter than the tall 

 column, tips with two small fleshy lateral tubercles and base 

 with a fleshy curved spur. Fr. much as in the next. 



Waste ground, railway embankments, etc., common. Fls. Dec.- July. 

 Fr. Feby.- June. Evergreen. 



Yields the well-known Madar fibre. Various- medicinal virtues are 

 ascribed to the plant. The Kols use it as a drastic purgative and _ fever 

 medicine, but they prefer the Euphorbia. The Santals give a decoction of 

 the root in infantile convulsions and delirium during fever, Campbell. 

 Mahouts use the leaves as warm fomentations in treating abscesses on 

 elephants. 



2. C- procera, R- Br. Vernacular names as above. 



A shrub 3-4 ft, closely resembling the last when not in 

 flower. 



Waste ground, chiefly in Palamau ; Maubhnm, Camp. : Common from 

 Barhito Koderma (Bazaribagh) ; Santal Parganahs (Morjhora, etc.). 

 FIb. and Fr. periods much as in last and uses the same. Fls. 9sp. 

 Dec.-Jany. 



L. usually suddenly often sharply acute or sub-mucronate, old glabrous 

 beneath. Peduncles numerous, cf ten 2 from an axil 1-3'' long, tomentoee. 

 Fls. with erect petals which are white with a deep purple blotch on the 

 upper half within and acute. Coronal-procs. with a purple obtuse tip and 

 fleshy dorsal upturned white spur. Follicles 3' by 1 V' obtuse, somewhat 

 sausage-shaped, outer and inner coats with fibrous tissue between. Seeds 

 obovate densely imbricate y v flattened. 



Asclepias curassavica, L. Is a pretty erect perennial with 

 lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate glabrous leaves and many-flowered 

 umbelliform cymes of scarlet flowers with reflexed corolla and 5 erect 

 spoon-shaped coronal-scales adnate to the stipitate column. A native of 

 the West Indies often found in village lands. 



5. Sarcostemma, R. Br. 



1. S. brevistigma, Wight. Kula-tnar, K. 



A leafless jointed sbrub with terete green straggling 

 branches and terminal sessile umbels of white waxy sweet- 

 smelling flowers J-J* diam. 



433 



