Microloma.] ASCLEPIADER (Brown). 557 
CENTRAL REGION: Calvinia Div.; between Lospers Plaats and Springbok 
Kuil River, 2000-3000 ft., Zeyher, 1177! Prince Albert Div. ; in the Karoo, by 
the Gamka River, 2000-3000 ft., Burke! Zeyher, 1178! Beaufort West Div. ; 
Karoo, near Beaufort West, Henderson, 83! Middelburg Div. ; on the Sneeuw- 
berg Range, between Compass Berg and Rhenoster Berg, 4500-5000 ft., Drége, 
3417! plains, Rosmead Junction, Sim in Herb. Galpin, 5630! Middelburg, 
Sim, 2590! Aberdeen Div.; Camdeboo Mountains, near Hamer Kuil, 3000- 
3500 ft., Drége ex E. Meyer; Graaff Reinet Div. ; hills near Graaff Reinet, 
2600 ft., Bolus, 365! Colesberg Div.; near Colesberg, Fraser ! Naauw Poort, 
Burchell, 2780 ! 
WestERN REGION: Var. 8: Little Namaqualand ; between Pedros Kloof 
and Silver Fontein, near Buffels (Kousie) River, 2000-2500 ft., Drége, 3050! and 
without precise locality, Scully, 246! and in MacOwan § Bolus, Herb. Norm. 
Aust.-Afr., 1313! 
The corolla of this plant varies considerably in length, actually; and relatively 
to the sepals. The var. Dregei from Namaqualand, distinguished by E. Meyer 
as a species, is taller and less densely branched than the other specimens, and has 
a different appearance, but I do uot find any difference in the flowers, The 
stems, however, are not more puberulous than some examples of the ordinary 
M. Massoni, in which they are never quite glabrous as described by E. Meyer, 
aithough the pubescence is often exceedingly minute. Decaisne has wrongly 
quoted R. Br. as the authority for Astephanus Massoni. 
X. PARAPODIUM, E. Meyer. 
Calyx 5-partite. Corolla 5-lobed ; tube hemispherical or globose- 
campanulate; lobes recurved or spreading at the tips. Corona-lobes 
5, adnate to the corolla-tube in their lower part, free at the tips 
alternating with the corolla-lobes, quite free from the staminal 
column. Stamens 5, united to the dilated part of the style in a 
column; anthers with membranous appendages at the apex.  Pollen- 
masses solitary in each cell, pendulous, attached by rather long 
caudicles to the pollen-carriers. Style conical at the apex, some- 
times produced beyond the anther-appendages. Follicles large, 
coriaceous. 
Erect herbs ; leaves opposite, coriaceous; umbels lateral at the nodes. 
Distris. Species 3, endemic. 
This remarkable genus is stated not to have been seen by Decaisne or Harvey, 
and the Kew specimens of it (on one of which Decaisne has written the name 
Parapodium costatum) were overlooked by Bentham when he worked up the 
order for the Genera Plantarum, whilst Schlechter in the Journal of Botany, — 
1896, 454, erroneously refers the plant on which E. Meyer founded the genus to 
Asclepias orbicularis, Schlechter (i.e. Xysmalobiwm orbiculare, Dietr.), a plant 
with which the generic description of E. Meyer does not at all agree. But 
Schlechter seems to have entirely misunderstood the genus Parapodium, since in 
Engler’s Jahrb. xx. Beibl. 51, p. 41, he founds the supposed new genus Rhom- 
bonema upon the very plant which HE. Meyer had long before described as 
Parapodium costatum. 
Style-apex exserted beyond the anther-appendages ; 
leaves lanceolate or oblong, flat or very slightly 
Uindinlated 5511 ina. | aaa pewiber ae Cee et 7) Oeetatam, 
Style-apex not exserted beyond the anther-appendages : ate 
Leaves oblong or oblong-linear, flat, not crisped ... (2) simile. 
Leaves linear-lanceolate or lanceolate, very much 
undulated and crisped (3) crispum. 
