294 Lxxxv. ASC'LEPiADE/K (browx). [Calot7'02ns. 



- IG. CALOTROPIS, R. Br. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. ii. 754. 



Calyx 5-partite ; sepals broadly ovale. 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, membranous 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, S. China, and the Malay Archipelago, the other 

 extending into Africa. 



1. C. procera. Ait. Ilort. Kew. ed. 2, ii. 78. A stout shrub, 

 10-18 ft. high, all the youngest parts clothed with a white tomentum, 

 becoming glabrous. Leaves on very short petioles or subsessile, 2 J-l 2 

 in. long. H-7 in. broad, ovate, oblong-ovate, elliptic, or obovate, obtuse 

 with a short abrupt point, base cordate, glabrous. Peduncles lateral 

 and terminal, l-V> in. long, stout, branched or somewhat elongating 

 and producing successive subumbellate clusters of 3-10 flowers, the 

 young parts white-tomentose, becoming more or less glabrous ; bracts 

 }^-^ in. long, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, acute, deciduous ; pedicels 

 i-1 in. long. Sepals 2-2J lin. long, I3-2J lin. broad. Corolla 

 campanulate, j-1 in. in diam., 5-lobed to |j the way down ; lobes 4^-5 

 lin. long, •>i-4i lin. broad, ovate, acute, quite glabrous, white, with 

 dark purple-brown tips. Coronal-lobes 2|-o lin. long, 2-21 ^^^' broad 

 at the base, compressed, oblong, obliquely truncate or rounded and cleft 

 into two short lobes at the top, minutely scabrous or pubescent down 

 the back, w^hicli has an upcurved and inrolled spur at the base. . Follicles 

 :>-4 in. long, 2J-3 in. thick, subglobose, obliquely ellipsoid or ovoid, 

 obtuse or depressed at the apex, with a thick spongy or somewhat 

 inflated pericarp. Seeds 3-3i- lin. long, 2 lin. broad, plano-convex, 

 narrowly margined, minutely tomentose. — Bot. Heg. t. 1792; Decne. 

 in DC. Prod. viii. 535 ; A. Rich. Tent. Fl. Abyss, ii. 33 ; Bot. Mag. t. 

 (;859 ; Vatke in Linn^ea, xl. 213 ; Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Ind. iv. 18 ; Wight, 

 Ic.iv. i. 17, t. 1278; Bentl. & Trim. Med. PL iii. t. 17G ; Krause 

 in Engl. Jahrb. xiv. 412 ; Penzig in Atti Congr. Bot. Internaz. 

 1892, 348; K. Schum. in Engl. Pfl. Ost-Afr. C. 323; in Engl. & 

 Prantl, Pflanzenfam. iv. ii. 232, fig. G7, E-G, and 239 ; in Engl. Jahrb. 

 XXX. 385 ; and in Ann. Istit. Bot. Roma, vii. 38 ; Henriques in Bolet. 

 Soc. Brot. xiii. 144; Hiern in Cat. Afr. PI. Welw. i. 687; Schwein- 

 furth in Hbhnel, Zum Rudolph-See u. Stephanie-See, Sonderabdr. 8. 

 C. heterophylla, Decne. in Ann. Sc. Nat. ser. 2, ix. 329, not of 



