558 ASCLEPIADE® (Brown). [ Parapodium. 
1. P. costatum (E. Meyer, Comm. 222); stem 3-11 in. high, 
erect, simple, stout, bifariously puberulous, at least on the upper 
part ; leaves in 6-8 pairs, coriaceous, very slightly fleshy, thick and 
rigid when dry ; petiole 1—11 in. long, spreading or upcurved, stout, 
flattened and puberulous above; blade 2-51 in. long, 3-14 in. broad, 
ascending, sometimes almost making a bend at its junction with the 
petiole, elongated-oblong or lanceolate, acute or obtuse and apiculate 
at the apex, rounded or broadly cuneate at the base, flat or very slightly 
undulated, but not at all crisped on the margins, glabrous or slightly 
puberulous on the very stout midrib beneath ; umbels 3-5, lateral at 
the nodes, pedunculate, 3-7-flowered; peduncles 23-8 lin. long, 
puberulous on one side; bracts 14-3 lin. long, linear-subulate or 
lanceolate, slightly pubeseent; pedicels 3-5 lin. long, glabrous or 
puberulous; sepals ascending and nearly equalling the corolla, 
4-41 lin. long, 3-11 lin. broad, lanceolate, acuminate, slightly 
pubeseent or almost glabrous on the back; corolla subglobose or 
globose-campanulate, about 5 lin. in diam., obtusely 5-angled, lobed 
to 2 of the way down, glabrous, dull purple-brown or violaceous 
outside, dull green within; tube 12 lin. long, subhemispherical ; 
lobes 3-4 lin. long, 14-14 lin. broad, oblong-lanceolate, subacute, 
erect, closely contiguous and concave at the lower part, recurved or 
revolute and convex at the tips; corona-lobes fleshy, 14-1} lin. 
long, 13-2 lin. broad, broadly cuneate, truncate or rounded at the 
apex, adnate to the corolla up to the sinuses, spreading, closely con- 
tiguous, forming a short pentagonal truncate cup, with 5 rather stout 
keels, formed by the inflexed contiguous margins of the lobes com- 
posing it, white ; in some flowers, between the subcontiguous margins 
of each pair of lobes, is an exceedingly narrow lobule channelled 
down its middle and also adnate to the corolla-tube; staminal 
column 2-21 lin. long, conical; anther-appendages 1 lin. long, 
ovate, oblong or more or less pandurate, acute or subobtuse, erect and 
applied to the sides of the stout conical style-apex; anther-wings 
somewhat hatchet-shaped, about half as broad just below the apex as 
they are at the hooked angular base, rounded on their outer margin ; 
style-apex projecting 1-1 lin, beyond the anther-appendages, shortly 
bifid; follicles not seen. Harv. Gen. S. Afr. Pl. ed. 1, 227; 
Decne in DC. Prodr, viii. 512; N. EB. Br. in Hook. Ic, Pl. xxviii., 
in note under t. 2744; Rand in Journ. Bot. 1903, 336. Metastelma 
costatum, Dietr. Syn. Pl. ii. 908. Rhombonema luridum, Schlechter 
in Engl. Jahrb. xx. Beibl. 51, 41, and Journ. Bot. 1896, 418. 
CentTRAL Recion: Aliwal North Div. ; on the Wittebergen Range, Drége! 
Karanart Reeton: Orange River Colony; Rhenoster River, Burke ! ‘Trans- 
vaal; near Lydenburg, Wilms, 952! Vereeniging, 4750 ft., Gilfillan in Herb. 
Galpin, 6149! foot of the Magaliesberg Range, Schlechter, 3610! Modder- 
fontein, Coirath, 980! Veld north of Johannesburg, Rand, 965! near Pieters- 
burg, Bolus, 11124! and without precise locality, Zeyher, 1163 ! 
Partly described from fresh flowers in fluid. As stated by Schlechter in 
Engler’s Jahrb. xxi. Beibl. 54, 3, the specimen in E, Meyer’s Herbarium named 
Parapodium costatwm, by EB. Meyer himself, is a piece of Xysmalobiwm orbiculare. 
But it is evident that some error has been made in placing the label bearing that 
