Stapelia. | ASCLEPIADE (Brown). 925 
anthers and longer or shorter than them. Staminal column arising 
from the bottom of.the corolla ; anthers ascending or inflexed upon 
the top of the style, without a terminal appendage. Pollen-masses 
ascending or subhorizontal, pellucid along the upper part of the 
inner margin, solitary in each anther-cell, attached in pairs: to the 
pollen-carriers by short stout caudicles ; pollen-carriers with a wing- 
like expansion on each side, blackish or dark brown. follicles 
narrowly or stoutly fusiform, smooth. Seeds crowned with a tuft of 
hairs. 
Dwarf succulent perennial herbs, branching at the base ; stems thick and fleshy, 
4- (rarely, and then abnormally 5-6-) angled; angles often compressed and 
usually toothed ; teeth spreading or ascending or tipped with minute rudimentary 
or rarely with distinct subulate leaves 2-5 lin. long; flowers 1 to many together 
from near the base, middle or upper part of the stems or the clusters scattered 
along their sides, pedicellate, large or of moderate size, rarely small, usually with 
a carrion-like or disagreeable odour. : 
Distris. Species about 56 in South Africa, with 3 or 4 in Tropical Africa, 
besides several hybrids that have originated in European gardens. 
The genus Stapelia was established by Linnzus upon 8. variegata and 8S. hirsuta, 
two forms so distinct in habit and details of structure that Haworth separated 
them (with their allies) into two genera, and established several others upon 
species that had been introduced by Masson at the end of the 18th century. 
But the characters of Stapelia and those upon which Haworth established his 
genera Orbea, Tromotriche, Tridentea, Podanthes and Gonostemon so completely 
pass into one another, that it becomes impossible to find any real distinguishing 
characters to separate them from Stapelia when the whole of the known species 
are reviewed. Thus understood, the genus is easily recognised and well distin- 
guished from all the others, with the exception of Carallwma, which, although 
usually readily distinguished by habit alone, contains a few species which cannot ; 
C. aperta is a notable example. A large number of the Stapelias cultivated in 
European gardens (including several described by myself) supposed to have come 
from South Africa are really hybrids that have originated in Europe by the 
cross-fertilisation of different species or varieties. Since many of these have 
been described and figured as distinct species of South African origin, they 
are included in [ ], and their names in the key are not printed in thick type. 
Hitherto the toothing of the outer corona-lobes, the adhesion, freedom or length 
of the dorsal wing of the inner corona-lobes, and, to a certain extent, the markings 
upon the corolla have been considered as good specific characters. But I find from 
observations of living plants, that within certain limits these characters are all 
liable to vary, sometimes even upon the same plant Like other members of the 
tribe, some species of Stapelia are eaten by the natives, whilst others are poisonous 
and used for medicinal purposes only. The Kew Bulletin, 1903, 17, contains 
an interesting account by Mrs. M. E. Barber of these plants as they grow under 
natural conditions and of the manner in which they are gradually becoming 
exterminated in some parts of South Africa. 
I. Corolla without a distinct raised ring (annulus) on the 
disk, which sometimes forms a short broad tube or 
has a depression or cavity containing the corona, but 
is never raised around its mouth (dried flowers of 
some species with an annulus often have the latter 
nearly or quite obliterated, and then falsely appear 
to belong here): 
* Corolla with the very small cup-shaped united part 
and very base of the lobes covered with short erect 
clavate purple hairs ; lobes 8 lin, long, very rugose, 
dull yellow, not ciliate ; stems velvety ... ... (39) flavopurpurea. 
