Habitat: — Baluchistan, Trans-Indus, Salt Range, Outer Himalaya to the Chenab ; Merwara.
An erect branching shrub with milky juice, leafless or nearly so. Stems many, as thick as a goose-quill or less, smooth or with pubescent tips. Leaves (when present) ¼ in long, thick, ovate or oblong, acute, nerves inconspicuous. Cymes many-flowered, often opposite, ½-l in. long and broad, on short thick peduncles or branching from the base ; bracts ovate-oblong, caducous from above the base. Flowers fragrant. Calyx glabrous, ⅛ in. long ; lobes ovate-oblong, obtuse. Coralla greenish and glabrous outside, purple within ; lobes reflexed, ¼ in. long, oblong, obtuse, densely bearded inside towards the apex. Corona-lobes ¼ in. long, transversely oblong at the base, each terminating in a long filiform process with a recurved apex. Stamens with glabrous filaments. Follicles on short thick peduncles, widely divaricate, 3-7 in. long, woody, terete tapering to a point. Seeds in. long, coma 1 in. long. (Duthie).
Use : — The milky juice is used in Sind as an external application to tumors and swellings (Murray).
770. Secamone emetica, Br. h.f.b.i., iv. 13.
Vern. : — Shada-búri (B.).
Habitat : — Mountains of the South Deccan Peninsula.
A diffuse, semi-shrubby, perennial herb. Stems numerous, slightly twining, slender, wiry, glabrous, cylindric, much thickened at nodes.' Leaves 2-2½in., linear-lanceolate or linear, acute at base, tapering and very acute at apex, glabrous. Petioles short, slender, 1½-3 by ⅛-½in., rather glaucous beneath, nerves faint (J. D. Hooker). Flowers yellow, on slender, pubescent pedicels. Cymes stalked, lax, dichotomous, bracts small, woolly pubescent. Calyx pubescent, segments ciliolate. Corolla under ¼in. diam., lobes oblong-oval, obtuse. Follicles 2-3in., much acuminate, smooth.
Use : — Regarded by natives as possessing powerfully emetic properties (Ph. Ind.).
771. Oxystelma esculentum, Br. h.f.b.i., iv. 17
Syn. : — Asclepias rosea, Roxb. 254.
