Gomphocarpus
(from gomphos, a club, and karpos, a fruit; the follicles are ventricose). ORD. Asclepiadeae. A genus comprising about eighty species of greenhouse herbs or sub-shrubs, natives of Southern and tropical Africa, Arabia, Central and North America. Flowers usually showy, on many-flowered, interpetiolar peduncles. Leaves opposite. The plants thrive in a compost of sandy loam and fibry peat. Propagated by seeds, sown in a hotbed, in spring; or by cuttings, made of small side shoots, when the plant is commencing new growth, and inserted in sand, under a bell glass.
G. arborescens (tree-like). fl., corolla white, glabrous; peduncles, pedicels, and calyces villous. December. l. ovate-oblong, glabrous, with an acumen. Stem villous, branched. h. 4ft. to 6ft. Cape of Good Hope, 1714. Shrubby. G. crispus (curled). fl. greenish-yellow; peduncles and calyces pilose. July. l. lanceolate-cordate, undulated, hispid. Branches downy. h. 1ft. to 2ft. Cape of Good Hope, 1714. Herb.
G. fruticosus (shrubby).* fl. white; peduncles and pedicels downy. June to September. l. linear-lanceolate, 4in. to 5in. long and 1in. broad. Stem downy. h. 5ft. to 7ft. Cape of Good Hope, 1714. The leaves of this shrub are sometimes employed to adulterate senna. (B. M. 1628.) G. padifolius (Cherry-leaved). fl. axillary (not terminal), in shortly-stalked umbels of six to ten; corolla lobes purplish-green; divisions of the crown purplish-yellow. l. broadly cordate-ovate, sessile, decussate, in close opposite pairs, 2in. to 3in. long, acute, entire, glabrous; upper surface pale green, tinged with purple as they grow old; under surface glaucous, deeper in colour. Stem purplish-green, erect. h. 3ft. South Africa, 1867. Warm greenhouse herb. (Ref. B. 254.)