740 ASCLEPIADEZ: (Brown). [ Glossostephanus. 
XX. GLOSSOSTEPHANUS, E. Meyer. 
Calyx 5-partite ; segments narrowly lanceolate. Corolla small, 
very deeply 5-lobed ; lobes suberect, linear. Corona of 5 simple 
lobes arising at the base of the staminal column, erect, laterally 
compressed and dorsally grooved. Stamens 5, united into a column 
around the ovary and adnate to the dilated part of the style ; 
anthers terminated by a minute membranous appendage. Pollen- 
masses pendulous, attached in pairs to the erect narrow pollen- 
carriers, which are dilated and somewhat crutch-like at the apex. 
Style produced much beyond the anther-appendages into a long 
beak-like point acutely bifid at the apex. 
A perennial herb, with a slender twining stem; leaves linear; flowers in 
pedunculate cymes or racemes, lateral at the nodes. 
Distris. Monotypic, endemic. 
1, G. linearis (E. Meyer, Comm. 218) ; a slender twining plant, 
glabrous in all parts except the corolla ; leaves spreading ; petiole 
13-4 lin. long ; blade 1-34 in. long, 1-3 lin. broad, linear or linear- 
lanceolate, acute or subobtuse ; flowers in racemes or simple and 
subumbellate or compound cymes, lateral at the nodes and including 
the slender peduncles 4-21 in. long ; pedicels 2—4 lin. long, filiform ; 
sepals #-1 lin. long, linear, acute; corolla-tube 3—2 lin. long, 
pubescent within with fine deflexed hairs ; lobes suberect, 13-2? lin. 
long, }-? lin. broad at the base, linear, acute, very minutely 
papillate-scaberulous on the inner face, greenish-yellow, at length 
becoming reddish or purplish (Burchell) ; corona-lobes arising at the 
base of the staminal column and adpressed to it, united at the very 
base by a pocket-like fold under the anther-wings, erect, $—} lin. 
long, fleshy, laterally flattened, linear (viewed sideways), acute, 
grooved down the narrow back, with an oblique keel or ridge on 
each side near the base, white; staminal column }~-3 lin. long ; 
anther-appendages minute, obtuse, erect, adpressed to the base of 
the tapering (angular?) style-apex, which is exserted 1-1} lin. 
beyond them and minutely 2-lobed at the acute apex. Harv. Gen. 
S. Afr. Pl. ed. i. 226 ; Meisn. in Hook. Lond. Journ. Bot. ii. 1843, 
546 (by error 446); Krauss in Flora, 1844, 827; Decne in DC. 
Prodr. viii. 521 ; Schlechter in Engl. Jahrb. xxi. Beibl. 54, 10, and 
Journ. Bot. 1896, 457. Apocynum lineare, Linn. f. Suppl. 169 ; 
Thunb. Prodr. 47; in Nov. Act. Acad. Petrop. xiv. 511; Fl. Cap. 
ed. 2, ii. 160, and ed. Schultes, 237 ; Lam. Encyel. i. 215 ; Willd. Sp. 
Pl. i. 1262; Pers. Syn. Pl. i. 275. A. lanceolatum, Thunb. Prodr. 
47, in Nov. Act. Acad, Petrop. xiv. 512; Flor. Cap. ed. 2, ii. 162, 
and ed. Schultes, 237 ; Willd. Sp. Pl. i. 1261; Pers. Syn. Pl. i. 275. 
Astephanus linearis and A. lanceolatus, R. Br. in Mem. Wern. Soc. 
i, 54; Schultes, Syst. Veg. vi. 123; Spreng. Syst. Veg. i. 855 P 
G. Don, Gen. Syst. iv. 158; Dietr. Syn. Pl. ii. 909; Decne m 
