Flora Medica

ASCLEPIADACE.SE.i. 255. Various parts of the East Indies, both the continentand islands.Root of many, long, thick, whitish, or light ash-coloured, fleshyfibres, issuing from a small, hard, ligneous head. Stems several,twining, slender, round, from 6 to 12 feet long; young parts downy.Leaves opposite, petioled, linear, cordate-ovate; those near the extremitiesare narrower, all are entire ; above smooth, below downy from;2 to 3 inches long. Petioles about half an inch long, channelled. Umbelssolitary, axillary, and alternate, generally compound. Pedunclesand pedicels twice the length of the petioles, round, downy. Involucreslanceolate. Flowers numerous, small, colour a mixture of badyellow, and orange. Calyx ;divisions lanceolate, very acute. Corollaflat ; divisions oval. Follicles lanceolate, spreading, 3 or 4 inches long,and about 2 in circumference, Roxb. Roots acrid; used on thecoast of Coromandel as a substitute for Ipecacvhana. Dr. Roxburghfound it to answer the same purpose as that drug, and had also veryfavourable reports of it from others. Dr. J. Anderson, physiciangeneral at Madras, confirms this ; it was used with great success in adysentery that was in his time epidemic in the British camp. No doubtit is one of the most valuable medicines in India. In large doses it isemetic ; in smaller doses often repeated it acts as a cathartic. Burnettstates it to be valuable as a sudorific, and to be peculiarly beneficial inhumoral asthma.CYNANCHUM.Corolla somewhat rotate, 5-parted. Coronet of appendagesconsolidated, 5-20-lobed ;when 5-lobed with the segments oppositethe anthers. Pollen-masses ventricose, pendulous. Stigmausually apiculate, sometimes blunt, very rarely with a beak enclosedbelow the summit. Follicles smooth.1148. C. Vincetoxicum RBr. mem. Wern. soc. i. 47 AsclepiasVincetoxicum Linn, sp.pl. 314. Fl. Dan. t. 849. Neesand Eb. pi. med. t. 208. Sandy places in most parts of Europeexcept Great Britain.Root cylindrical, creeping. Stem 1-3 feet high, erect, round, with alongitudinal downy line on each side. Leaves cordate-ovate, smooth.Flowers whitish, somewhat nodding, in corymbose umbels, 3 times aslong as their common peduncle. Coronet 5-lobed. An emetic andpurgative, once celebrated as an antidote to poisons; whence its name.1149. C. monspeliacum Linn.sp.pl. 311. Cm>. ic. i. t. 60.Jacq. ic. ii. t. 340. RBr. 1. c. 44. Sea coast of Italy, Spain,South of France and Greece.Stem running, climbing, milky. Leaves stalked, roundish cordate,with a semilanceolate contracted point. Flowers white or pink, axillary,with branched peduncles. Segments of the corolla lanceolate, ratherblunt. Coronet tubular. The inspissated juice is drastic, and knownofficinally under the name of Montpelier Scammony.1150. C. ovalifolium Wight, asclep. 51. Penang.A smooth twining plant. Leaves oblong-oval, not cordate, acuminate.Cymes many-flowered. Peduncles longer than the petiole. Coronet542