834 ASCLEPIADEZ (Brown). { Brachystelina. 
like fissures or rarely entire, or of 5 minute pouches or distinct entire 
or bifid lobes, alternating with the inner corona-lobes or sometimes 
divided to the base and the 2 adjacent halves of 2 lobes connate and 
adnate to the sides or back of the base of the inner corona-lobes and 
falsely appearing to form part of or to stand behind them ; inner 
corona of 5 lobes incumbent upon the backs of the anthers and 
shorter to longer than them, often dorsally connected at the base to 
the outer corona or adnate to the sides of its lobes. Staminal column 
arising from the base of the corolla ; anthers incumbent or inflexed 
upon the apex of the style or suberect, oblong or subquadrate, with- 
out an appendage. Pollen-masses horizontal or ascending, solitary 
in each anther-cell, pellucid on the inner margin or at their apex, 
attached in pairs by very short caudicles to the pollen-carriers or 
subsessile upon them. Style not exceeding the anthers, truncate or 
convex at the apex. Fllicles fusiform or linear-fusiform, smooth. 
Seeds crowned with a tuft of hairs. 
Perennial herbs, usually of dwarf habit ; rootstock a tuber or cluster of thick 
“fleshy roots ; stem solitary or two to several to a tuber, simple or branched, erect, 
‘prostrate or rarely twining ; leaves opposite ; flowers small or of moderate size, 
solitary or 2 to many together, lateral at the nodes or in terminal umbels or 
wmbel-like cymes. 
DistRip. Species about 60, mostly South African, the others about equally 
divided between Tropical Africa and India. 
Brachystelma is closely allied to Ceropegia, differing chiefly in the corolla-tube 
being very short or absent. As here understood it forms a compact and easily — 
recognised genus, but by Harvey and Schlechter no less than 6 other generic names 
have been proposed for its various species. I find, however, no distinction of 
structural importance by which they can be maintained. Four of them, viz. : 
Decaceras, Harv., Dichelia, Harv., Aulostephanus, Schlechter, and Lasiostelma, 
Benth. (= Brachystelmaria, Schlechter), are upheld by Dr. Schlechter. Decaceras, 
however, merely differs in having no tube to the corolla, as is also the case in 
B. caffrum, N. E. Br., and B. pulchellum, Schlechter, and a like difference is found 
in several genera. Dichelia only differs in having the corolla-lobes connate at the 
tips, and in B. pygmxum I find them free or connate on the same specimen ! 
B. Barberiz, Harv., however, which has connate lobes, is placed by Dr. Schlechter 
under Brachystelma, I can find no other difference, and Ceropegia and Schizoglossum 
both contain species with free and connate lobes. Aulostephanus and Lasiostelma differ 
in having a cluster of fleshy roots instead of a tuber, and more erect corolla-lobes, but 
the same difference of habit is found in Ceropegia, Asclepias and Xysmalobium, and 
the form and size of the corolla vary very much in many genera. Several large 
genera, such as Senecio, Pelargonium, Oxalis, Euphorbia, ete., exhibit similar or 
still more striking differences of habit and floral structure, so that there appears 
nothing to warrant the retention of the above four as distinct from Brachystelma. 
The tubers are eaten by the natives. Probably some of the following descriptions 
of the corolla-tube, made from dried specimens, will not be found to agree with 
that of the living plant, as it changes very much in drying ; see for example the 
desciptions of B. caudatum, N. E. Br., and B. Barberiz, Harv. 
* Corolla-lobes free, see also 29, B. pygmxum: 
+ Corolla with a distinct tube 1-8 lin. long: 
Corolla-tube about 4 in. long, campanulate or ovoid- 
campanulate, much longer than the lobes ; 
plants 13-3 in. high : 
Corolla covered with long white hairs inside ; lobes 
Oates 55 ek re whe ve (vee (1) ofanthum. 
