Periploca. | _ LXXXV. ASCLEPIADEZ (BROWN). 257 
or subtruncate at the apex. Follicles smooth. Seeds crowned with 
a tuft of hairs.—Twining or erect shrubs, rarely leafless. Leaves 
opposite. Flowers of moderate size, or small, in lax axillary or terminal 
cymes. 
Species several; the genus extends into North Africa, the Canaries, S. Europe 
and through the Orient into India and China. 
Leptadenia visciformis, Vatke in Oesterr. Bot. Zeitschr. 1876, 146, may belong 
‘to this genus. 
Corolla-lobes bearded within, 
Branches rather stout, stiff and usually leafless 
Branches slender ; leaves long, linear. : 
Corolla-lobes glabrous within, but with a velvety 
sheen ; leaves elliptic-oblong . : 
1. P. aphylia. 
2. P. linearifolia. 
i) 
nigrescens. 
1. Periploca aphylla, Decne. in Jacquem. Voy. Bot. 109 t. 116. 
A branching glabrous or puberulous shrub, with stiff moderately stout 
leafless branches, or sometimes the young shoots bear small oblong or 
lnear-oblong obtuse or acute leaves 2-6 lin. long, 3-1} lin. broad, on 
very short petioles. Cymes terminal on very short lateral branches, 
5-20-flowered; bracts ‘minute, obtuse; pedicels 13-3 lin. long, gla- 
brous or puberulous. Sepals 3-1 lin. long, 2-2 lin. broad, ovate or 
ovate-oblong, obtuse, glabrous or puberulous. Corolla rotate, 6-7 lin. 
in diam.; lobes 24-3 lin. long, 14-1} lin. broad, oblong-ovate, obtuse 
or subacute, glabrous on the back, bordered on the inner face near 
the margin with long white hairs, glabrous on the central part, with a 
slightly raised lanceolate boss down the middle, formed of minute, 
densely crowded papilla. Coronal-lobes 34 lin. long ; basal part trans- 
versely oblong, truncate, with two wing-like keels down the inner face, 
one near each margin; apical part filiform, erect, tortuous. Stamens 
hairy on the back of the deltoid-ovate anthers; filaments glabrous. 
Follicles widely divergent, 3-4 in. long, i in, thick, terete, acuminate, 
glabrous or puberulous.—DC. Prod. viil. 499; Boiss. Fl. Orient. iv. st Be 
Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Ind. iv. 12; K. Schum. in Engl. & Prantl, Pilanzen- 
fam. iv. ii, 216. 
M Nile Land. Nubia: near the coast, about 21° N. latitude, Bent ! 
“ountains, Schweinfurth, 238! 340! 
ara Egypt, and extending through Arabia and Persia into 
Soturba 
the plains of North- 
2. P. linearifolia, Dill. d: Rich. in Ann. Se. Nat. sér. 2, xiv 
263. A glabrous climber. Leaves 14-34 in. long, 1-3 lin. broad, 
linear, acute. Cymes lax, several flowered, pedunculate, axillary and 
terminal, often forming large compound cymes at the ends of the 
branches ; bracts } lin. long, ovate. Sepals } lin. long, ovate, obtuse. 
Corolla rotate, 5 lin. in diam.; lobes 2 lin. long, ? lin. broad, with 
revolute margins, bearded within except along the middle. Coronal- 
lobes subulate-filiform, minutely hairy, shortly dilated at the base 
and two-keeled within, with the edges of the dilated part adnate to 
the corolla, Stamens hairy on the back of the filaments and anthers. 
VOL. Iv. s 
