64 ASCLEPIADACEdE. [BEACHYSTELMA. 



ia found suitable for well-ropes iruSind, and sometimes in combination 

 with that of Periploca aphylla. Mr. Lace states that the plant is much 

 used in the Sibi district as a camel ftfdder. 



16, BRACHYSTELMA. R. Br.; FL Brit. Ind. iv. 64. 



Erect or twining pubescent or glabrous herbs with tuberous roots,, 

 Leaves opposite, sometimes very narrow or minute. Flowers few, 

 in axillary sessile umbels, or solitary, pedicels very slender. Calyx 5- 

 partite, with 5 glands or scales inside at the base. Corolla (in the 

 Indian species) rotate ; lobes 5, elongate, valvate. Corona double, 

 adnate to the staminal column, annular, variously 5-10-lobed or 

 toothed, lobes or teeth erect or incumbent on the anthers. Staminal 

 column very sbort ; anthers ovoid, tips without appendages, retuse ; 

 pollen-masses one in each cell, erect, sessile, globose, pellucid on the 

 inner margin or near the apes. Stigma nearly flat. Follicles slen- 

 der, smooth. Seeds comose. Species 22, of which fourteen are African 

 and the remainder inhabit India. 



Leaves minute ; flowers several, pendulous, 



in sessile umbels . . . . . 1. B. Icevigatum. 

 Leaves manifest ; flowers solitary in the 



axils, erect . . . . . . 2. B.pauciflorum. 



1. B. laevigatum, Hook. f. Fl. Br. Ind. iv, 65. Eriopetalum laeviga- 

 tum, Wight Contrib. 35. Gomphocarpus Isevigatus, Buch.-Ham. 



Root the size of a small potato, Stem 12-18 in. high, pubescent upwards^ 

 Leaves minute, subulate. Flowers in sessile umbels, pendulous, f in* 

 in diam. ; pedicels minute, hispid. Calyx lobes T | in. long, subulate, 

 hispid. Corolla pale dull-purple, with pale-green filiform segments 

 three times as long as the tube, puberulous outside. Corona with five 

 broad erect 2-toothed lobes between the anthers and as many narrow 

 oblong ones opposite to them. Follicles 2-3 in. long, erecfc, subfalcate, 

 tapering gradually to the apex. Seeds about J in. long, linear, margined, 

 coma twice as long as the seed, 



Found by Buchanan-Hamilton in the sub-Himalayan district of Gorakh- 

 pur in 1814, and not since met with. Flowers during March. 



2. B. pauciflorum, Duthie. 



Quite glabrous except the inflorescence. Root globose, about in. in 

 diam. Stem erect, 1-lj ft. high. Leaves 2-4) in. long, linear-lanceolate* 

 sometimes falcate, tapering below into a short thick angular pebiole, 

 margins recurved, midrib thick and pr jminent underneath ; lateral 

 veins slender, ascending. Flowers solitarv in the upper axils, about 

 f in. across, pedicels slender, about 1 in. long, pubescent, baaring three 



