N. 0. AS0LEPIADEJ3. 
823 
conical. Follicles 4-5 by -jin., thinly coriaceous, slightly 
diverging, narrowed to the base, tip fine, straight. Seeds 
flattened, |-£in. long, ovate. 
Use : —Water passed through a bundle of Somalatd and a 
bag of salt, will extirpate white ants from a field watered by it. 
The ancient Hindus used to prepare an intoxicating liquor, 
from the juice of the plant mixed with barley and ghee (Bird- 
wood). 
This doss not seam to be the soma plant of the Vedas. (B. I) B). 
779 . Gymnema sylvestre, Br. h.f.b.i., IV. 29 . 
Syn. : — Asclepias geminata, Eoxb. 256. 
Sans. : — Mesha-sringi. 
Vern. : — Mera-singi (H. and B.) ; Gurmar (H.) Kdvali, wdkdndi 
(Bomb.); Shiru-kurunja (Tam.) ; Poda-patra, putla-podra (Tel.) ; 
Parpatrah (Dec.); Chhota-dudhi-lata (B.). 
Habitat Banda, Dekkan Peninsula, from the Konkan to 
Travancore ; Ceylon, low country. 
A stout, woody climber, covering high trees. Branches 
slender, very numerous, cylindric, softly and shortly hairy. 
Leaves l-2^in. or l|-2in., rather small, ovate, obovate or elliptic, 
rounded at base, rarely cordate, acute, shortly acuminate, hairy 
on the. veins, especially beneath. Petiole £in., hairy, slender 
or stout. Cymes £in. diatn., subglobose, 2-nate, peduncled, nearly 
flat ; pedicels slender. Bracts obsolete, says J. D. Hooker, but 
says Trimen, probably after examining the plant in the fresh 
and not dried condition, that the bracts are numerous, minute, 
hairy. Calyx segments ovoid, rounded or obtuse, hairy. Corolla 
about £in. diatn., pale-yellow ; lobes about as long as the tube, 
acute, recurved, coronal scales in the throat of Corolla, fleshy, 
blunt, produced downwards as double ridges on the tube ; 
Column small ; stigma ovoid, prominent. Follicles small (one 
usually suppressed) l^-2in ; slender tapering (Trimen) ; 2-3 by 
|in., glabrous, terete, rigid (J. D. Hooker). Seeds narrow; |in. 
long, narrowly ovoid-oblong, flat, with a broad thin wing, 
