OBTHANTHEBA.] ASCLEPIADACE^. 66, 



minute bracts near the base. Calyx deeply 5-lobed ; lobes lanceolate, 

 acute, reaching to the rounded sinuses of the corolla, pubescent. 

 Corolla dark purplish-browD, deeply 5-lobed ; lobes lanceolate, 

 subobtuse, puberulous, margins recurved. Inner Corona of five incum- 

 bent oblong emarginate scales. Follicles not seen. 



Found by Duthie's collector at Chakia in the Bahraich district of N. 

 Oudh. Flowers in April. Its affinity appears to bo with B. parviflorum 

 Hk. f.,from which it differs in the broader leaves, the shorter pedicels 

 and in the size and colour of the flowers. From B. Icevigatum it may 

 be distinguished by its conspicuous foliage and by its solitary erect 

 and much larger flowers. A single specimen only was found, and the 

 material was insufficient for a complete description of the corona. 



17. ORTHANTHERA, Wight., Fl. Brit. lad. iv t 64. 



An erect vir^ate leafless shrub. Flowers small, crowded in dense 

 peduncled wholly cymes. Calyx-lobes lanceolate, eglandulav. Corolla 

 salver-shaped ; tube ovoid, equalling the lanceolata valvate lobes. 

 Corona of 5 small erect scales inserted in the sinuses of the corolla 

 lobes, sometimes with an inconspicuous fleshy ring below the 

 anthers. Staminal column ovoid, anther-tips without appendages 

 pollen -masses globose, stipitate, erect. Stigma included, flat, 6-gonal. 

 Follicles elongate, cylindric, opening out flat after dehiscence. Seeds 

 ccmose. A single species confined to N. India. 



p. viminea, W. $ A. in Wight Contrib. 48 ; Royle III. 274, t. 66, f. 1 ; 

 Dene in. Jacquem. Bot. Voy. 109, t. 115 ; Brandis For. Fl. 335; Ind. Trees 

 472 ; F. B. I. iv, 64 ; Watt E. D.; Kanjilal For. Fl. 245 ; Gamble Man. Ind. 

 Timb. 493. Vern. Mahur-ghas (Rind), Chapkia (Bijnor), Khip (Delhi). 



A small erect leafless shrub with stiff glabrous branches about as thick 

 as a crow's quill. Flowers dull-brown, arranged in compact woolly 

 cymes ; peduncles -j-1 in. long, pedicels very short. Sepals linear- 

 lanceolate, nearly as long as the corolla. Corolla, salver- shaped, ^ in. 

 long, villous outside, tube ovoid ; lobes erect, oblong, as long as the 

 tube, keeled and glabrous within. Follicles solitary, erect, 4-6 in. long, 

 linear, compressed; pericarp thin, brown within. Seeds % in. long, 

 coma | in. long. 



Common in the stream- teds of the Siwalik range, and on the banks of 

 rivers in Dehra Dun, also in the Bijnor forests and eastwards to the 

 Gonda district of N. Oudh, and westwards to Delhi and Merwara. 

 Flowers during March and April. DISTBIB. : Himalaya up to 2,600 ft. from 

 Kumaon to Peshawar, Punjab, Sind and Eajputana. The fibre of the 

 stem is often made into ropes, and in Oudh the flower-buds are eaten as 

 a vegetable. 





