LOCHNEEA.] APOCYNACEM. 33 



R. serpentina, Benth. ex Kurz For. Fl. Burma ti, 171 ; F. B. 1. Hi. 

 632; Watt E. D. ; Kanjildl For- Fl. 237; Gamble Man. Ind. Timb. 431; 

 Prain Beng. PI. 671 ; Cooke PI. Bomb, ii, 127. Ophioxylon serpentinum, 

 Linn. ; Roxb. Fl. Ind. i, 694. Vern. Chota chdnd. 



A small erect glabrous shrub with a pale-coloured bark. Leaves whorled, 

 3-7 in. long by 1-2| in. wide, lanceolate or oblanceolate, acute or 

 acuminate, tapering gradually into the petiole, thin, pale beneath. 

 Flowers white or pinkish, arranged in terminal or lateral corymbose 

 cymes ; peduncles stout, 2-5 in. long ; pedicels and calyx red ; bracts 

 minute, lanceolate. Calyx-lobes T \j in. long, lanceolate. Corolla about 

 | in. long ; tube slender, inflated above the middle ; lobes much shorter 

 than the tube, elliptic-oblong, obtuse. Disk membranous, slightly lobed. 

 Drupes about in. in diam., single or didymotis and more or less 

 connate, purplish-black when ripe. 



Dehra Dun, Si^valik range and in the sub-Himalayan tracts of Eohilkhand, 

 N. Oudh and Gorakhpur. Flowers November- December. DISTBIB. West- 

 ward to Sirhind along the base of the Punjab Himalaya, and eastward 

 to Sikkim, Assam and N. and C. Bengal, and from Bombay through 

 C. and S. India to Ceylon; also in Burma, the Andaman Islands 

 extending to Java. The plant has from very early times been in much 

 repute for its medicinal properties. (See Watt JB. D.) 



3, LOCHNERA, Reiehb. Conspectus 134. 

 VINCA IN FL. BRIT. IND. in, 640. 



Ajinual or perennial herbs or undershrubs. Leaves opposite 

 axillary glands numerous, in a fringe ; outer long and filiform, inner 

 minute. Floivers axillar}', solitary or in pairs, white or pink. Calyx 

 herbaceous, 5-partite ; segments subulate, scarcely imbricate. Corolla 

 salver-shaped ; tube slender, cylindric, somewhat inflated round the 

 stamens below the constricted mouth, lobes overlapping to the left. 

 Stamens on the corolla-tube ; filameuts very short ; anthers free 

 from the stigma, ovate-lanceolate, acute, shortly and obtusely 2-lobed 

 at the base. Disk replaced by 2 long linear glands alternating with 

 the carpels. Carpels 2, free, style filiform, stigma depressed- 

 capitate, with a long hyaline reflexed frill at the base and a minute 

 obtuse 2-lobed apiculus surrounded by a very short erect membra- 

 nous rim. F.ollicles cylindric, slightly spreading. Seeds many, 

 small, testa rugose, albumen fleshy ; cotyledons oblong, flat. 

 Species 3, in Trop. America, India and Madagascar. 



