530 Flora of the Malayan Peninsula. 



Scortechini. Malacca : Maingay (K.D.) 1107. Singapore : Cuming 

 2408. — DiSTRiB. India, Burma, Ceylon, Malay Islands, S. China. 



14. AscLEPiAS, Linn. 



Perennial herbs or shrubs, often with tuberous roots, juice milky, 

 stems usually erect. Leaves opposite or whorled. Floioers in peduncu- 

 late or sessile umbels, terminal or lateral between the leaves, usually 

 orange-yellow, red or green. Calyx deeply 5-partite, with 5 to 10 

 glandular scales within at the base. Corolla rotate, deeply 5-lobed ; 

 the lobes valvate or slightly overlapping in bud, lobes usually reflexed 

 when open. Corona of 5 processes arising from the staminal-column 

 and adnate to it above; lobes erect, concave-cucuUate, with usually a 

 tooth-horn protruding from within. Stamens affixed to the base of the 

 corolla ; the filaments connate in a tube ; anthers with a membranous ap- 

 pendage inflexed over the style-apex ; pollen-masses pendulous, flattened, 

 solitary in each anther-cell, attached to the hard pollen-carriers by 

 caudicles. Styles free below, connected above; style-apex columnar, 

 truncate or depressed and often umbonate at tip. Follicles variable, 

 smooth or softly echinate. Seeds comose. — Disteib. Species many, 

 chiefly of Africa and America, 2 only in Arabia and the Orient, and 2 

 naturalized in most warm regions. 



AscLEPiAs CURASSAVICA, Linn. Sp. PI. I. 215 (1753). A perennial 

 erect herb; stems 2 to 3 ft. high, pale, glabrous, smooth. Leaves lanceo- 

 late, acuminate at apex, cuneately acuminate at base, glabrous on both 

 surfaces; 2-5 to 5-5 in. long, -5 to 1 in. broad; midrib slender, raised 

 beneath ; main nerves 12 to 15 pairs, irregular, curving upwards at an 

 acute angle ; reticulations not very prominent ; petiole -25 to -5 in. long. 

 Umbels lateral and terminal, 6- to 12-flowered ; peduncles 1 to 3 in. long, 

 puberulous ; pedicels "5 to '75 in. long, puberulous; buds ovoid; flowers 

 orange- scarlet. Caly x-\ohes lanceolate, acute, "15 in. long, puberulous ; 

 scales minute. Corolla reflexed when open ; lobes oblong, acute, '2 to 

 •25 in. long, glabrous, slightly overlapping to the right in bud. Corona- 

 processes arising about -1 in. above the base of the staminal-column, 

 spathulate-cucullate, *1 to -15 in. long with a protruding horn as 

 long as themselves arising from the base within and curved inwards 

 over the staminal-column. Anthers auricled at base ; appendages 

 orbicular, inflexed over the style-apex. Style-apex columnar, depressed, 

 5-angled. Follicles lanceolate-acuminate, 3 to 3*5 in. long ; pericarp 

 thin, smooth, glabrous. Seeds elliptic, plano-convex, -2 in. long, -15 in. 

 broad, with a broad, thin margin ; testa dark brown, thin, lineate ; 

 coma -75 to 1 in. long ; cotyledons ovate, small ; radicle cylindric. 



