Flora of the Malayan Peninsnla. 529 



joined in a slender style l^earing a depressed pentagonal style-apex. 

 Fruit of 2 large, inflated, fleshy, thick, follicular mericarps. Seeds 

 ovate, plano-convex, with broad apex surmounted by a coma of long 

 slender silky hairs. — Distrib. Species 4, of Tropical Asia : in India, 

 China, and the Malay Archipelago, one extending into Africa. 



Calotropis gigantea, Br. in Ait. Hort. Kew, ed. 2, ii. 78 (1811). 

 A large shrub, sometimes almost a small tree ; branches stout, fleshy, 

 with ash-coloured bark; branchlets covered with soft w^hite woolly 

 tomentum. Leaves somewhat leathery w^hen green, membranous when 

 dry ; elliptic-oblong or obovate-oblong, acute at apex, cordate at base ; 

 both surfaces when young covered with very short white cottony 

 tomentum, when old the upper glabrous, the low^er glabrescent ; 4 to 

 8 in. long, 2 to 4 in. broad ; midrib broad, with a large gland at the base 

 on the upper surface ; main nei'ves 6 to 8 pairs, the lowest curved down- 

 wards, the rest upwards to and along the margin ; reticulations few, 

 not prominent ; petiole none or extremely short. Cymes densely white- 

 tomentose, on peduncles 1-5 to 4-5 in. long ; branches none or few, 1 to 

 1-5 in. long, bearing umbels of 6 to 12 flowers on thick pedicels reach- 

 ing 1 to 1'25 in. long ; bracts linear-oblong, deciduous ; buds ovoid, 

 obtuse ; flowers greyish-white with rose or lilac markings, 1 to 1"5 in. 

 in diam. Ca%a;-lobes ovate-acuminate, about -15 in. long, cottony 

 without ; glands usually about 3. CoroZZa-lobes ovate-lanceolate, acute, 

 reflexed in flower, -25 to -5 in. long. C'oro?za-processes '25 to -35 in. long, 

 with obtuse auricles on either side near the apex and much incurved 

 spur at the base ; the keel puberulous. ^w^S/zer-appendages 2- to 3-lobed, 

 short, curved over the style-apex. Ovary and style -35 in. long, slender; 

 style-apex star-shaped, flat, -15 in. broad, the umbo depressed, the horns 

 of the star bearing the pollen-carriers. Follicles 3-5 to 5 in. long, 

 oblong, broad, thick, fleshy, ventricose, pale yellow or green when fresh, 

 recm'ved. Seeds numerous, -25 to -3 in. long by -2 in. broad, broadly 

 ovate, flattened ; testa brown, narrowly margined, minutely tomentose ; 

 coma 1 to 1'25 in. long ; cotyledons ovate-cordate, '125 in. long ; radicle 

 •05 in. long, ovate, acute. Hamilt. in Trans. Linn. Soc. XIV. 245 ; 

 Wight Contrib. 53, and 111. t. 155, 156a ; Dalz. & Gibs. Bomb. Fl. 149 ; 

 Brandis For. FL 331; Griff. Notul. IV. 68, and Ic. PI. Asiat. t. 397, 398; 

 Dene, in DC. Prodr. VIII. 535 ; Bot. Eeg. t. 58 ; Miq. Fl. Ind. Bat. II. 

 481 ; Hook. f. Fl. Br. Ind. IV. 17 ; Bot. Mag. t. 6862 ; Km-z For. Fl. II. 

 200 ; Trimen Fl. Geyl. III. 148 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb. II. 151 ; Prain Beng. 

 Plants 688 ; Watt in Kew Bull. 1900, p. 8. Asclepias gigantea, Willd. 

 Sp. PL 1264 ; Eoxb. Hort. Beng. 20, and Fl. Ind. II. 30. " Ericu " and 

 " Bel-ericu," Eheede Hort. Mai. II. 52, 56, t. 31. 



Penang: Haji Husain for Curtis. Perak: Wray 2123 (introd.) ; 



