ASCLEPIADACEAE. 



297 



1. Gomphocarpus physocarpus E. 



Meyer. LARGE-FRUITED GOMPHO- 

 CARPUS. (Fig. 315.) Shrubby, 

 branched, pubescent above, 4-6 

 high, rather densely leafy. Leave.? 

 thin, linear-lanceolate, short-petioled, 

 acuminate at the apex, narrowed at 

 the base, 2' 4' long, i' wide or less; 

 umbels few, several-flowered; pedi- 

 cels very slender, puberulent, !'-!' 

 long ; corolla white, about \' broad, 

 its ovate, acutish segments soon re- 

 flexed ; follicles ovoid, about 2' long, 

 1'-1A' thick, loosely covered with 

 weak slender processes about 3" long. 

 [Asclepias physocarpa Schlechter.] 



Roadside, St. David's Island, 1909. 

 Flowers in spring. Native of South 

 Africa. Naturalized in Jamaica. 



Hoya carnosa R. Br., WAX-PLANT, 

 of tropical Asia and Australia, occa- 

 sionally planted in gardens and grown 

 luxuriantly under glass, is a vine 

 with thick fleshy entire ovate leaves, 

 and umbelled fragrant flowers, the white rotate corolla with a crown spreading 

 like a star; the fruits are smooth follicles. 



Stephanotis floribunda A. Brongn., STEPHANOTIS, Madagascan, is an ele- 

 gant high-climbing, glabrous vine, with thick shining elliptic petioled leaves 

 2'-4' long, and large white fragrant flowers in stalked axillary umbels, the 

 short calyx 5-parted, the salverform corolla l'-2' long, with 5 spreading 

 lobes and a crown of 5 scales, the fleshy pod about 4' long; it is commonly 

 planted on walls and grows luxuriantly. [Marsdenia floribunda Schlechter.] 



Stapelia maculosa (Haw.) Donn, CARRRION -FLOWER, South African, occa- 

 sionally grown for interest, is a fleshy leafless plant 3'-4' high, the stems 4- 

 angled, the stalked purplish mottled flowers 3'-4' wide, their odor very 

 offensive. [Orbaca maculosa Haw.] 



Cryptostegia grandinora R. Br., CRYPTOSTEGIA, a woody vine, containing 

 much milky sap, and yielding some india rubber, grown at Wood Haven in 1914, 

 has oblong entire thickish leaves 3'-4' long, and large purplish flowers, the 

 corolla about 2' broad with a corona of 5 scales deep down in its tube. 



Order 5. POLEMONIALES. 



Mostly herbs; rarely shrubs or trees. Corolla almost always garno- 

 petalous, regular or irregular. Stamens adnate to the corolla-tube usually 

 to the middle or beyond, as many as the corolla-lobes, or fewer and alter- 

 nate with them. Ovary 1, superior, compound (in Boraginaceae and 

 Lamiaceae deeply 4-lobed around the style). 



a. Corolla regular. 

 Ovary not 4-lobed, the carpels not separating as distinct nutlets at maturity. 



Ovary 2-celled, rarely 3-4-celled ; style 1, entire, 2-cleft, or 2-parted; mostly 



twining vines. 



Ovary 2-4-celled. Fam. 1. CONVOLVDLACEAE. 



Ovary 2-divided. Fam. 2. DICHOXDRACEAE. 



Ovary 3-celled ; stigmas 3, linear. Fam. 3. POLEMOXIACEAE. 



