66 XCV. ASCLEPIADE&. (J. D. Hooker.) [Brachystelma. 
Corolla 1 in. diam., purplish, lobes crenulate. Column inserted by a very small 
base. 
7. B. Beddomei, Hook. f.; glabrous, leaves very slender elongate acu- 
minate, umbels peduncled 3 fld., corolla-lobes many times longer than the tube 
glabrous cohering by their tips corona with 5 very broad rounded lobes. Cero- 
pegia brevitubulata, Beddome Ic. Pl. Ind. Or. t. 174. 
Mysore; Vellore hills, alt. 1000 ft., Beddome. . 
Glabrous, except the puberulous cyme. Leaves in distant pairs, 3-4 by 3-1 in. 
narrowed to the sessile base. Peduncle 4 in.; bracts setaceous ; pedicels $ in. Sepals 
setaceous. Corolla quite glabrous, pale without, purple within ; segments 1 in. long, 
very narrow, flat. Corona with the processes opposite the anthers so entirely confluent 
with them as to appear to be absent.—This singular species has the corolla of 
Brachystelma with the segments cohering by their tips as in Ceropegia; it unites the 
characters of these genera. 
50. CEROPEGIA, Linn. 
Twining, rarely erect herbs, often with a tuberous rootstock. Leaves 
opposite, sometimes minute or 0. Flowers in axillary peduncled umbelliform 
cymes, rarely solitary, often large, white or greenish and purple. Sepals nar- 
row.  Corolla-tube elongate, straight or curved, often swollen at the base, 
throat dilated or not; lobes very various, broad or narrow, erect or incurved 
with cohering tips, often at length recurved or reflexed. Corona adnate to the 
column, annular or cupular, 5-10-lobed and with 5 long or short ligulate pro- 
cesses within that are free or adnate to the anthers. Column short; anther 
short, obtuse ; pollen-masses one in each cell, short, erect, sessile, with one pel- 
lucid margin. Stigma depressed or shortly 2-lobed, included. Follicles usually 
slender, terete, smooth. Seeds comose.—DisrRIB. Species about 50; tropical 
Asian, African and South African, with a few Malayan and Australian. 
Herbarium materials do not suffice to enable me to discriminate satisfactorily the 
species of this most difficult genus, and still less to describe them accurately. The 
classification I here propose is quite artificial. 
* Stem erect, rarely flexuous or twining. 
1. C. pusilla, Wight Ic.t. 1261 ; dwarf, puberulous, leaves linear, corolla 
straight, lobes linear erect much shorter than the tube, tips puberulous. i 
Cat. 8140; Dene. in DC. Prodr. viii. 643. 
Deccan Pentysvuta ; Nilgherry and Anamallay Mts., alt. 7—8000 ft., Wight, &c. 
Tuber 1-1 in. diam. Stem 3-6 in. Leaves rather crowded, 1-3 by j5-j in, 
narrowed at the base. Flowers solitary or 2-3-nate, erect. Sepals 4-1 im. Corolla 
lin. tube narrow, base ovoid. Coronal lobes 5, triangular, acute, 2-fid, ciliate ; pro 
cesses narrowly linear, three times as long. Follicles 2 in., narrowly fusiform. 
_ 2. C. spiralis, Wight Ic. t. 1267 ; quite glabrous, leaves very narrowly 
linear, corolla straight, lobes narrowly linear contorted as long as the tube 
fimbriate at the base. 
Deccan Pentysvta ; Balaghat hills, Madras, Wight; Cuddapa hills, Beddome. 
Stem slender, 4-6 in. Leaves 4-8 by 3-4 in., margins recurved. Flowers solitary, 
shortly peduncled. Sepals filiform, 3-4 in. Corolla 2 in. long, base slightly inflated, 
mouth hardly dilated. Coronal lobes 5, triangular, acute, glabrous; processes slender; 
three times as long. 
3. C. fimbrifera, Beddome in Madras Lit. Soc. Journ. 1861, 58, and Ic. 
Pl. Ind. Or. t. 172; finely pubescent, leaves narrowly linear, corolla straight; 
