1835.] 



Observations on Mudar. 



77 



shall be able to show, though true in the main^ has^ like all 

 other general rules^ its exceptions. 



Milky plants, generally, are viewed with suspicion, so great 

 a proportion of them being endowed with acrid properties, 

 and the asclepiadeas, more particularly the roots, are suppos- 

 ed to possess these in an eminent degree, from so many of 

 them acting as emetics, purgatives, sudorifics, &c. Professor 

 DeCanclolIe states, that the Asclepias decumbent of America, 

 has the singular property of exciting general perspiration 

 without increasing in any perceptible degree the heat of the 

 body, and is on that account constantly employed in Virginia 

 for the cure of pleurisy. In this country, we have several 

 species, besides the mudar, the roots of which possess emetic 

 and diaphoretic properties, and may at all times be used as 

 substitutes for ipecacuana in either capacity, particularly in 

 the cure of dysenteric affections, and also in many others 

 for which that well known medicine is in daily use. The 

 following list extracted from the works of Ainslie and 

 Roxburgh contains a few of the principal of these, and no 

 doubt there are many more in India, though unknown to us. 

 Our ignorance of them is, perhaps^ partly owing to the dif- 

 ficulty of distinguishing the plants, on account of their 

 structure, till explained by Mr. Brown, being so little 

 understood, that it was almost impossible to give an 

 intelligible generic character ; which will be apparent 

 from the synonyms which I have added, from these 

 authors, to the present names, and from the fact that Rox- 

 burgh has only described 31 species of the order found in 

 India, out of nearly 150 species that actually exist. Now, that 

 that difficulty is removed, it is to be hoped we will soon receive 

 great accessions to our knowledge of the medicinal properties 

 and uses of this very curious order. 



Present names. Ainslie^s, Roxhiirgh^s. 

 Calotropis Asclepias Asclepias 



gigantea 

 procera 



gigantea 



gigantea 



Tylophora 

 teneuissima 

 asthmatica 



Asclepias 

 prolifera 



Asclepias, 

 volubilis 



Asclepias 



tenuissima 

 Asclepias 



asthmatica 



