46 ASCLEPIADACE^. [PEEIPLOCA. 



A large glabrous twining shrub ; branches terete, whitish. Leaves 

 coriaceous, shortly stalked, 3-6 by 1-2^ in., oblong-ovate or elliptic, 

 with a rounded or retuse and apiculate apex, usually acute at the base, 

 dark-green above, glaucous beneath ; main lateral nerves many, slender, 

 horizontal and uniting within the margin; petioles ^--| in. long. 

 'Flowers pale greenish-yellow, in short axillary panicled cymes ; bracts 

 ovate-lanceolate, with scarious margins. Calyx-lobes ovate, acute. 

 Corolla-lobes % in. long, linear or linear-lanceolate. Corona of 5 clavate 

 scales. Follicles 2-4 in. long, stout, straight, terete, tapering. Seeds 

 % in. long, ovate-oblong, compressed, black, coma 1 in. long. 



Common within the area, especially in the deciduous forests of the sub- 

 Himalayan tracts and in Bundelkhand, also found in hedges. Flowers 

 May June. DISTRIB. Throughout the hotter parts of India, ascending 

 to 4,000 ft. on the Himalaya; also in Ceylon, Burma and China. A 

 useful fibre is said to be yielded by this plant. 



3. PERIPLOCA, Linn. ; PL Brit. Ind. iv, 11. 



Erect or twining glabrous shrubs, sometimes leafless. Leaves 

 opposite. Flowers in lax terminal or axillary cymes, greenish exter- 

 nally, purplish within. Calyx 6-partite, with five glands within. 

 Corolla rotate ; lobes obtuse, usually bearded within, overlapping to 

 the right. Coronal scales connate into a 10-lobed ring, often pro- 

 duced behind the stamens into five subulate or branched processes. 

 Stamens within the corona ; filaments free, broad and flat ; anthers 

 bearded on the back, conniving over and adhering to the stigma, tips 

 cohering and with incurved appendages ; pollen-masses in pairs in 

 each cell, granular ; appendages of the corpuscles dilated. Stigma 

 convex. Follicles conniving or divaricate, cjlindric, smooth. Seeds 

 comose. Species about 12, in S. Europe, W. Asia and tropical 

 Africa. 



Leaves small, ovate, usually absent ; follicles 

 divaricate . .... 1. P. aphylla, 



Leaves lanceolate, acuminate ; follicles not 

 divaricate . . . . . 2. P. calopJiylla. 



1. P. aphylla, Dene, in Jacquem. Voy. 190, t. 116 ; Brandis For. Fl. 

 330; Ind. Trees 467 ; F. B. I. iv 9 12; Watt E. !>.; Gamble Man. Ind. Timb. 

 490 ; Cooke FL Bomb, ii, 148. Campelepis viminea, Falc. in Trans. Linn. 

 Soc. nix, 109. 



An erect branching shrub with milky juice, leafless or nearly so. Stems 

 many, as thick as a goose-quill or less, smooth or with pubescent tips. 

 Leaves (when present) in- long, thick, ovats or oblongr, acute, nerves 

 inconspicuous. Cymes many-flowered, often opposite, 4-1 in. long and 

 broad, on short thick peduncles or branching from the base ; bracts 



