K. O. APOCYNACEJE. $01 



A large, erect, stout, glabrous evergreen shrub, containing a 

 cream-coloured sticky resinous juice. Root crooked. Stem 

 6-8ft. Woody, pithy in the centre. Bark thick, corky, soft, with a 

 grey surface externally ; in young branches green. Leaves 

 ex-stipulate, in whorls, rarely opposite or scattered, narrow linear- 

 lanceolate ; 4-6in. long, thickly coriaceous, acuminate, entire, 

 revolute, midrib very stout, main lateral nerves numerous, 

 slender, horizontal, parallel, very close. Petiole very short. 

 Flowers hermaphrodite, showy, sweet-scented, single or double, 

 variously coloured, l^in. diam., salver-shaped. Cymes racemose. 

 Peduncles terminal, long angular ; pedicels short; bracts, decidu- 

 ous, coloured. Calyx inferior, 5-partite, tubular, persistent, 

 slightly acerescent. Segments subulate, lanceolate, erect ; base 

 of the Calyx-tube glandular within. Corolla 5-lobed, twisted, 

 hypogynous, gamopetalous, regular, deciduous. Corona of each 

 petal 3-fid, laciniate. Stamens 5, alternate with the lobes of the 

 Corolla, included ; filaments attached to the tube the whole way 

 down. Anthers sagittate, introrse, united to the stigma, 2-celled, 

 dehiscing longitudinally. Connective, feathery more than twice 

 the length of the anthers. The feathery processes are spirally 

 twisted into a bundle projecting beyond the Corolla-tube. 

 Pollen globose. Ovary superior, of two carpels, separable in fruit. 

 Style single, uniting the ovaries. Stigma hour-glass or dumb-bell- 

 shaped. Fruit cylindric, capsules in pair, with deep linear 

 striations, slightly twisted, 6-9in. long. Seeds numerous, com- 

 pressed, exalbuminous, with a tuft of fine, shining, white, and 

 greyish silky hairs ; fusiform, slightly rugose. 



Uses : — " Roots used in skin diseases and inflammatory affec- 

 tions. It has several synonyms in Sanskrit, signifying horse' 

 killer, seems to be used for destroying horses. The root, beaten 

 into a paste with water, recommended to be applied to chancres 

 and ulcers on the penis (Sarangdhara). Fresh juice of the 

 young leaves poured into the eyes in ophthalmia with copious 

 lachrymation (Chakradatta)." (U. C. Dutt's M. M., p. 191). 



All parts of the plant, especially the root, are recognized by 

 the natives as poisonous, and, as such, are used for criminal and 

 suicidal purposes ; yet we find, in the Taleef Shereef (p, 129), 



101 



