306 OTHER FIBROUS ASCLEPIADS. 
and its long, straight, leafless, slender, and wand-like stems, 
point it out as seemingly well suited for rope-making.” 
Other plants of this family, useful for the same purposes, are 
Hoya viridiflora, which yields an excellent fibre, and probably 
also Leptadenia spartea. The fibre of another species of the 
genus, L. Jacquemontiana, was described to the Author, by his 
late lamented friend Dr. Stocks, as employed in Sindh with 
Periploca aphyllum for making into ropes and bands used for 
wells, as water does not rot them. 
Specimens of the flowers, leaves, immature pods, and stem, 
of a fibre-yielding plant, were presented by Capt. Hannyington, 
Political Agent at Purulea in Chota Nagpore, to the Agri- 
Hortic. Society in 1841. 
Capt. H. mentions that this plant is very abundant in 
the Hills about Purulea, and is also found in the neigh- 
bouring plains. Jt is known to the Coles by the name of 
Apoong. ‘The fibre is said to attain its best condition after the 
rains. The Secretary mentioned that this plant was intro- 
duced into the Botanic Garden from Western India, and is well 
known to Dr. Wallich, who immediately recognized it as 
Holostemma Rheedianum of Sprengel, the Ada-Modien of the 
Hortus Malabaricus. 
But there is no doubt that this family of plants contains 
many others possessed of useful fibrous properties ; but we will 
conclude with one which is likely to be the most important 
of all, that is, the Mudar or Yercum. 
es 
Mopar or Yercum Fisre, Asclepias now Calotropis 
gigantea, and C. Hamiltonii (Asclepiadee). 
Sans., drka and Akund; Arab., Ashur ; Hindee, dk, Mudar, and Muddar ; Madras, 
* Yercum, Tella Jilladdoo. 
In the Southern, as in the Northern parts of India, there is 
met with in considerable quantities in all uncultivated, and 
encroaching even on cultivated grounds, a plant with broad, 
rather fleshy, glaucous-coloured leaves; and which, on being 
wounded, gives out a milky juice from every part. This is 
called Ak and Mudar in Northern, and Yercum in Southern 
India. Its juice, and the powdered bark of its roots, have 
long been employed as an alterative by the natives of India, in 
