XLysmalobium. | LXXXV. ASCLEPIADE® (BROWN). 313 
Engl. Jahrb. xvii. 120, Engl. & Prantl, Pflanzenfam. iv. ii. 233 and 234, 
fig. 68, A-D, and in Bull. Soc. Bot. Belg. xxxvii. 122; Durand & 
Schinz, Etudes FI. Congo, i. 192. Gomphocarpus spathulatus, Schlechter 
in Journ. Bot. 1895, 269. 
Lower Guinea. Angola: near Malange, Mechow, 356; near Chamasango on 
the River Quango (Kuango), Mechow, 539! 
South Central. Congo Free State: Kongola Savanna, Buchner, 611; 
Marangu (Marungu) district, De Beerst (ex Schumann) ; Mpweto, on Lake Moero, 
Descamps (ex Schumann). 
In general appearance this plant closely resembles XY. bellum, N. E. Br., which 
Dr. Schumann considers to be identical with X. spathulatum ; but after an examina- 
tion of one of type specimens (Mechow, 5394), which was sent to Kew by Professor 
Engler and upon which the above description is chiefly based, I am unable to adopt 
this view, as the coronal-lobes are quite different in the two species. The figure of 
them in Engler & Prantl, Pflanzenfamilien is not quite accurate for Mechow. 539A, as 
regards the form of the lobes, or their length and position relative to that of the 
anthers, but it is sufficiently correct to demonstrate how different they are from those 
of X, bellum, 
19, ASCLEPIAS, Linv.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. ii. 754. 
Calyx 5-partite. Corolla 5-lobed to below the middle or nearly to 
the base, campanulate, subrotate, or reflexed ; lobes overlapping to the 
left in bud. Corona of 5 lobes arising from the staminal-column, oppo- 
Site the anthers, variable in form, usually free to the base, but some- 
times with the inflexed sides shortly adnate to the staminal-column, 
Complicate-cucullate or channelled down the face, or at least with the 
margins at the apex middle or base of the lobes inflexed and usually 
orming a tooth on each side, never flat, witb or without a tooth horn 
or Crest on the face of the lobe within the cavity or between the inflexed 
sides; Sometimes 5 minute or rudimentary simple or bifid teeth or 
pouch-like lobules alternate with the coronal-lobes at their base. 
taminal-column arising from the bottom of the corolla. Anthers 
erect, with their membranous appendages inflexed over the apex of 
«Style or erect. Pollen-masses pendulous, solitary in each anther- 
cell, attached to the pollen-carriers in pairs by short or long variously- 
shaped caudicles, Style truncate or depressed and often umbonate at 
- apex, not exceeding the anther-appendages, which partly cover it. 
Follicles variable in shape, smooth or softly echinate. Seeds crowned 
with a tuft of hairs.— Perennial herbs or shrubs, often with a tuberous 
rootstock or tuberous roots; juice milky, Stems simple or branched, 
usually erect, rarely diffuse. Leaves opposite or whorled. Flowers in 
Pedunculate or sessile umbels, lateral at the nodes or terminal.— 
Comp hocarpus, R. Br. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. ii. 753, Stathmo- 
stelma, K. Schum. in Engl. Jahrb. xvii. 129. 
A large gen istri hout Africa and the warmer parts of Nort anc 
uth fiend ike ee and the Orient, and 2 naturalised in most 
warm regions. 
