strope (strop)

A dialectal form of strap. strophanthin (strō-fan'thin), n. [ in the seeds of Strophanthus hispid us. Strophanthus (stro-fan'thus), n. [NL. (A. P. de Candolle, 1801), so called from the twisted and tailed lobes of the corolla; tinct carpels, ripening into divergent follicles with seeds tailed at one end and extended at the other into a long plumose beak. There are about 20 species, natives of Asia and tropical Africa, with one, S. Capensis, in South Africa. They are small trees or shrubs or often climbers, either smooth or hairy, with opposite feather-veined leaves, and terminal cymes of handsome flowers which are either white, yellowish, orange, red, or purple. The seeds of in western Africa S. hispid us affords the inée poison (see several species or varieties in Africa yield arrow-poison: poison of Pahonias, under poison ), in eastern Africa S. Kombe the kombe poison, and some species between Zanzibar and Somali-land the wanika poison. But S. Kombe is suspected to be a variety of S. hispid us, and the third species is probably the same. Since 1878 these seeds have excited great medical interest as a medium for the treatment of heart-disease, but their investigation is not complete. (See strophanthin.) Several species are cultivated under the name twisted - flower.