Gymnema.] ASOLEPIADACEJB. 53 



i- the eampanulato tube, ovato, acute; margins ciliato. Follicles 

 rofloxod. 8-3 By $ in., covered with long soft spines, lanceolate, beaked. 

 Seeds i in. long, ovate, crenato at the rounded base, densely paboscent. 



Abundant within the area. Flowers Jan. -April. Distrib. Through- 

 out the hotter parts of India and in Ceylon, ascending to 3,000 ft. on 

 the Himalaya : also in Afghanistan, extending to Arabia and 

 Tropical Africa. The fibre of the stem has been recommended as a 

 promising substitute for flax. The leaves and juice are used medicinally. 



10. GYMNEMA, R.Br.; Fl. Brit. Ind. iv, 28. 



Twining shrubs. Leaves opposite. Flowers small, in crowded 

 uinbelliform cymes. Cahjx 5-partite. Corolla subrotate 

 eampanulate or urceolate ; lobes thick, overlapping to the right. 

 Corona adnate to the corolla-tube, the tips more or less incurved, 

 or of 5 pairs of fleshy ridges alternating with the corolla-lobes 

 towards the base of the tube. Staminal-column attached to the 

 base of the corolla ; anthers short, erect, with short membranous 

 tips ; pollen-masses solitary in each eel], erect, waxy. Stigma 

 large, often exserted. Follicles slender or turgid, smooth, acu- 

 minate. Seeds comose. — Species 20-25, in Asia, Africa and 

 Australia. 



Corona-scales protruded beyond the sinuses of 

 the corolla-lobes. — Large pubescent woody 

 climbers : — 



More or less pubescent, cymes dis- 

 tinctly peduncled, corolla about & in. in 

 diameter ...... 1. G. sylvestre. 



Softly rusty-tomentose, cymes subsessile, 



corolla about 5 in. in diameter . . 2. G. hirsutum, 

 Corona-scales not produced beyond the sinuses 

 of the corolla-lobes. — An extensive almost 

 glabrous climber 3. G. ting>. 



sylvestrc, B. Br. in Mem. Wern. 80c. i, 33; Boyle 111. 273; 

 Brandis Ind. Trees 469 ; F. B. I. iv, 29 ; Watt K.B.; Gamhlc Man. 

 Ind. Timh. 492 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb, ii, 160. G. melicida, Edrjew. in Journ. 

 As. 80c. Beng. xxi (1S52\ 174. Asclepias geminata, Roxb.; Fl. Ind. ii, 

 45— Vern- Gurmar (Bundelkhand). 



A largo more or less pubescent climbing shrub ; young stems and branches 

 terete, pi res subcoriaceous, \-2\ in. long, elliptic or 



ovate, acute or shortly acuminate, Cuneate rounded 01 < urdato at the 

 base, often glabrous above. m< ro 01 less pubescent beneath, especially 

 on the Teins ; petioles \-\ in. long. Flov ■. . in umbellate 



