CALOTROPIS GIGANTEA. Brown.
Var, a. Alba or white. I Var. b. Lilicina or blue.
a. White variety.
Asclepias gigantea, Linn.
Ashur, . . . . ARAB. Yerika, Erika, . MALEAL. Shwet Akund, . . BENG. Belerika (white), . Rowi, . . . . BomBAY. Arka, Mandara, . SAME. Mai-oh, . . . BURM. Sri-ai-Taurkam, Yokada, . . . . CAN. Moodu-waru, . . SINGH. Bed-ul-Ashar, . . EGYPT. Vella yercam (white), TAM.
Kercher, . . . . Tella jilledu, TEL.
Gigantic swallow wort. Racha jilledu . . Macho, Akund, . HIND. Nalla jilledu (purple), Calotropis is a genus of plants of the natural order Asclepiacem. The species produce useful fibres, a cotton woo], an acrid juice, a gutta percha like substance, and a manna. Three species are met with all over Southern_Asia, but C. gigantea is that common in the southern, and C. Hamiltonii in the northern parts, and C. procera grows in Persia and Syria (Voigt, p. 540). C. gigantea is, by the Hindus, held sacred to Siva.
Its buds also form one of the five flowers on the darts with which Kama, the Indian god of love, is supposed to pierce the hearts of mortals ; Infants winged, who mirthful throw Shafts rose-tipped from tiectareous bow.' Sir William Jones refers to it in his hymn to Kama Devil.
The rope is called Lamb-dor, HIND., Tooudee cuir, TAM., Gahm taroo, TEL. It will grow in barren places, and it has been suggested to plant it as a barrier to drift Rands. It yields a kind of manna called Shakar-al-ashur, also Ak or Madar ka shakar (sugar). Its milky juice has been prepared like caoutehouc and gutty perch, and yields 50 per cent. It is evaporated in a shallow dish, either in the sun or in the shade ; when dry, it may be worked up in hot water with a wooden kneader, as this process removes the acridity of the gum. It becomes im mediately flexible in hot water, but hardens in cold water ; is soluble in oil of turpentine, and readily takes impressions. It is, however, a con ductor of electricity. The wood is white, tolerably hard and close-grained, and grows to a girth of 12 inches. It is used for gunpowder charcoal, and by firework manufacturers. The silky down of the pods is used by the natives on the Madras side in making a soft cotton-like thread. It is suscep tible of being spun into the finest yarn for cambric, and has been used for the manufacture of a light substitute for flannel by Messrs. Thresher & Glennie of London. It works well with either silk or cotton. It is also being tried by Messrs.
Cowan & Co. of Edinburgh as a material for paper. In 1856 Major Holling,s exhibited carpets manu factured in the jail at Shahpur in the Panjab from the follicle in the seed-pod. He mentioned that the manipulation of the floss was precisely the same as cotton. A carpet 7 feet by 3i feet cost Rs. 7. Fibres are prepared from the stem and branches. These are dried in the sun for 24 or :36 hours, when they are taken up and the bark peeled from the wooden parts, and the greenish coloured fibres gathered. A night's bleaching whitens them.
The cleaned fibres are one of the bowstring hem pa of India. This fibre possesses most of the qualities of flax, and can be worked with the same machinery, as it splits to almost any degree of fineness with the hackle, and bears dressing and beating well. It was used by wealthy natives for making strong cloths, cambrics, and lawns ; and it is employed for fishing lines, nets, gins, bowstrings, and tiger traps. It does not rot readily in water. It is even considered better adapted for cloth than for cordage. The strength exceeds that of all other vegetable substances, as the following experiments made at Coimbatore, of a three-strand inch rope, will show : 1. Coir, Cocos nucifera, sustained 224 lba.
2. Pooley blanjee, Hibiscus cannabinus, . 290 3. Marool, Sanseviera Zeylanica, . 316 4. Cotton, Gossypium herbaceum, . 346 5. Cuttbalay nar, Agave Americana, . 362 6. Junapum or Sunn, Crotolarea juncea, 407 7. Yercum nar, Calotropis gigantea, . 552 Its fibre is valued at £30 to £35 a ton. The follicles are supposed by some to be the apple of Sodom. Its juice and the powdered bark of its roots have long been employed as alteratives by the natives of India in leprosy and other cutaneous affections, also in syphilitic ailments, and are sup posed to possess active properties. Dr. Duncan obtained from it a principle which he called Mudarine. In Arabic authors on Materia Medics it is even supposed to have been known to the Greeks. The leaves, smeared with oil, are used in rheumatism. 1 Vighe s Contributions; Hooker, Him Journ. 86; Iloyle, Ilitn. Bot. 275; Drs. Riddell, Hunter, Mason, O'Shaughnessy, p. 43; Wight in M. E. Reports of 1857; Moyle, Fib. Pl.; Simmonds, Corn. Prod. ; Burton, iii. 122 ; Jour. Agri-Hort. Socy. of India, viii. 107, 226. See Carbon.