66 ASCLEPIADACE^. [CEKOPEGIA. 



18. CEROPEGIA, Linn. ; PI. Brit. Ind. iv, 66. 



Twining, rarely erect, perennial herbs, often with a tuberous 

 roolsfcock. Leaves opposite, sometimes minute or none. Flowers 

 in lateral peduncled usually umbellate cymes, rarely solitary, often 

 lar^e, white or greenish and purple. Calyx 5-partite, lobes narrow, 

 Corolla-tube elongate, straight or curved, often swollen at the base ; 

 lobes ereot or incurved and with cohering tips, often at length 

 recurred or reflexed, valvate in bud. Corona staminal, double, 

 attached to the column; outer cupular, entire or toothed; inner 

 more or less adnate to the outer, consisting of 5 lobes erect or 

 incumbent over the anthers. Staminal column, very short, adnate 

 to the base of the corolla ; anthers short, without appendages ; 

 pollen- masses one in each cell, short, erect or ascending, attached to 

 the pollen-carriers by short caudicles or subsessile. Stigma included, 

 truncate or shortly conical. Fjllicles usually slender, acuminate, 

 smooth. Seeds coinose. Species 80 or more, in Trop. and Temp. 

 Asia and Africa, also in Malaya and Australia. 



C. bulbosa, Roxb. Cor. PI. i, 11, t.7 s Fl. Ind. ii, 28; Royle El. 274 ; 

 F.B.I, iv, 67 \ Cooke Fl. Bomb. ii, 176. 



A twining perennial herb ; rootstock tuberous, somewhat flattened like a 

 turnip, emitting many fibrous roots from below. Stems very slender, 

 usually glabrous. Leaves extremely variable. (In typical C. bulbosa 

 they are petioled and up to 2 in. long, the lowest almost orbicular, the 

 upper elliptic-oblong or obovate, usually apiculate and with a rounded 

 truncate subcordate or acute base.) Flowers few, in peduncled 

 umbellate cymes; peduncle -1 in. 'long, pedicels much shorter. Calyx- 

 segments | in. long, lanceolate, acute. Corolla less than 1 in. long, 

 greenish, tube inflated at the base ; lobes ^ in. long, linear from a 

 triangular base, violet-purple and villous within. Outer corona-lobes 5, 

 minute, inner filiform. Follicles about 4 in. long, terete, tapering to a 

 slender point, glabrous. Seeds % in. long, ovate-oblong, flat. 



In the Doab of the Upper Gangetic Plain near Allahabad (Hb. Kew) 

 also in Bundelkhand (Edge worth), growing on waste land and amongst 

 bushes. Flowers during the hot season. DISTBIB. : Punjab Plain and 

 southwards to Travancore. Roxburgh states that eyery part of the plant 

 is eaten by the natives, either raw or stewed in their curries, the fresh 

 roots tasting like a raw turnip, and the leaves and stem like purslane. 



Many of the Asclepiadacece are extremely ornamental. The following 

 "belonging to genera which are not represented in the indigenous flora 

 of the Upper Gangetic Plain should be specially mentioned as being 

 often met with in gardens within the area of this flora. Cryptostegia 

 grandiflora, E. Br. (Tribe Periploceaa), a large climbing shrub with 

 glossy 'foliage and handsome rose-coloured flowers. It is believed to be 



