POISONOUS PLANTS OF BOMBAY. 613 



With regard to the substance which binds the clip-like organ to the 

 stigma, it may be observed that Professor Kerner Von Marilaun terms 

 it Viscin. It is a transparent structureless and colourless substance ; it 

 " Does not form droplets with water, nor does it dissolve in alcohol or 

 olive-oil. It may be termed Viscin, from the similarity which it pre- 

 sents to the bird-lime obtained from the berries of the Mistletoe. 

 ( Viscum)." " It is very sticky, and on the slightest touch can be drawn 

 out into delicate threads." " The sticky substance is probably a mucilage 

 formed from the outer wall of the pollen-tetrad, or from the broken- 

 down walls of the mother-cells." (Pp. 101-102, op. cit.) 



Professor Asa Gray very rightly remarks that the flowers of the entire 

 order Asclepiadece are rather too difficult for the beginner to understand. 

 I would add that to the Amateur Botanist it is almost repulsive, if not 

 a veritable Pons asinorum. Nevertheless to the truly faithful and 

 earnest student of Vegetable Morphology, the complex structure of the 

 reproductive organs of the Asclepiadece is of immense, almost undying 

 interest in common with that of similar organs among the Orchidece, 

 Aristolochice, and Nepenthes or Pitcher-plants. I may usefully add a 

 passing remark here of Professor Kerner Von Marilaun's, which is one 

 of very great importance in understanding the structural difference 

 between the pollinia of the Orchidece aud those of the Asclepiadece. In 

 the former, the pollinia are connected by a little knob called the 

 Corpusculum "Which is soft and viscid ; whereas in the latter there is a 

 clip which is a hard dry implement with two arms capable of holding 

 any small delicate object by gripping it. Secondly, the pollinia in the 

 Orchids are clavate or of pasty consistency ; in the Asclepiads, as already 

 described, they are in the i'oim of shining, horny leaflets" (Kerner 

 Von Marilaun, p. 257, op. cit.). 



There is a difference of opinion among Botanists with regard to the 

 flowering time of Calotropis gigantea. Rheede says it flowers thrice a 

 year. But I have the high authority of Brandis and Gregg, and of 

 Sanskrit writers such as Madan Pal (see Nighant, p. 31, Calcutta, 1886), 

 coupled with rny own experience, to be able to say that the plant flowers 

 throughout the year, in suitable soil, wherever the roots of the plant can 

 extend far and wide and derive ample nourishment of the requisite kind. 

 There are differences of opinion again as regards the odour of the 

 flowers of this plant. The correct description of the odour, however^ 



