750 Asclepiadaceae. 
inside of the very short tube velvety pubescent, otherwise glabrous, 
white or pinkish, veined. with purple at the base, whence 5 purple 
rays extend to the sinuses between the lobes. Coronal-lobes 51/, mm 
long, lanceolate or deltoid-acuminate, entire, bifid, or trifid at the 
apex, gibbous and crumpled at the base. Style-apex slightly convex, 
not exceeding the anthers. Follicles 27/,—5 cm long, about 10 mm 
thick, not inflated, lanceolate, acute, glabrous. Seeds very small, 
2,5 mm long or less, ovate, biconvex, very narrowly margined, grey. 
— Flow. January to March. 
N. d. Alexandria; Rosetta; Damanhur; Tanta; Mansura; Zaqazig: 
Qalytb; Cairo. — N. f. Medinet-el-Fayim. — N. v. Siut; Esne; 
Aswan. — N.v.mer. Islands near Aswan. — D. a. mer. Kene; Qoseyr. 
Local name: libbeyn. 
Also known from Nubia; Arabia Petraea and Syria. — A form with 
acute, not-inflated follicles also oecurs in India, but the seeds are larger. 
about 3 mm long. The quotation by Decaisne of Secamone, Alpinus, PI. 
AKgypt. 53, with fig., and ed. Vesling (1640), 133 and 134 fig., and ed. (1735) 
63, t.48, is altogether wrong for the genus Oxystelma, as the plant there 
figured is Leptadenia heterophylla (Following N. EK. Brown in Flor. Trop. 
Africa IV, fase. II p. 383), 
429. (7.) Calotropis R. Br. 
Calyx 5-partite; sepals broadly ovate. Corolla 5-lobed to more 
than half-way down, rotate-campanulate or with reflexed lobes. 
Corona of 5 compressed lobes, shortly cleft into two lobules at 
their top, with an upcurved and involute spur at their base, adnate 
throughout their length to the staminal-column as far as the base 
of the anthers. Anthers short and broad, with short, broad, mem- 
branous appendages inflexed over the rim of the pentagonal apex 
of the style, which is depressed in the centre. Pollen-masses 
solitary in each anther-cell, pendulous, attached by short slender 
caudicles to the pollen-carrier. Follicles large, with a thick spongy- 
fibrous mesocarp, and parchment-like endocarp, not echinate. Seeds 
ovate, plano-convex, crowned with a tuft of hairs. — Large shrubs 
or small trees, with opposite subsessile broad leaves, and pedunculate 
umbelliform cymes arising from the side of the stem between the 
bases of the leaves. Flowers moderately large. 
Species 4, 3 confined to India, South China, and the Malay Archipelago, 
the other extending into Africa. 
1052. Calotropis procera (Ait.) R. Br. in Hort. Kew., ed. I 
(1798) p. 78. — Boiss. Flor. Or. IV, p.67. — Deesne. in DC. 
Prodrom. VIII, p. 535. — Aschers.-Schweinf. Ill. Flor. dEg., p. 104 
