Traclielospermum, APOCYNACE^E. 85 



ii. 720; name changed from Rhynckospermum, Lindl. (not Reinw., nor A.DC., nor 

 is there a beak to the seed). Parechites, Miq., Gray in Mem. Am. Acad. vi. 403. 

 To this (Japanese, Himalayan, and Malayan) genus is here referred, somewhat 

 dubiously, the following. 



T. difforme. Climbing 10 or 15 feet high, somewhat pubescent when young or glabrous : 

 stems slender: leaves from ovate or oval to lanceolate, acuminate, membranaceous (1 to 

 3 inches long) : peduncles shorter than the leaves : flowers rather numerous in open cymes, 

 short-pedicelled : corolla cream color, 4 lines long ; the ovate lobes much shorter than the 

 cylhulraceous tube with its considerably dilated throat : style obscurely dilated under the 

 narrow membranous ring of the stigma : follicles long (6 to 9 inches) and slender. 

 Echite.s difformis, Walt. Car. 98 ; Bart, Fl. Am. Sept. i. t. 10. E. pitberula, Michx. Fl. i. 120. 

 Forstcrom'a dij/'on/i's, A.DC. Prodr. viii. 437. Secondatia, Benth. & Hook. I. c. River- 

 banks, Virginia to Florida and Texas : fl. spring and summer. 



ORDER LXXXVIII. ASCLEPIADACE.E. 



Characters of Apocynacecu as to herbage and general structure of flowers and 

 fruit ; distinguished by the peculiar aggregation and cohesion of the pollen into 

 granulose or waxy masses (pollinia), one or sometimes two in each anther-cell, 

 and connected with the stigma or rather stigmatic disk in pairs or fours by means 

 of o glands or corpuscles, which alternate with the anthers. ^Estivation of the 

 corolla often valvate or nearly so. A corona (crown) of five parts or lobes 

 usually present between the corolla and the mostly monadelphous stamens, and 

 aclnate either to the one or the other. Ilypogynous disk within the stamens 

 none. Styles distinct up to the common stigmatic mass, or none. Fruit always of 

 2 follicles, or by abortion of one ovary solitary, several-many-seeded ; the seeds 

 almost always bearing a long and soft coma at the apex. Radicle superior. 

 Stems herbaceous or merely shrubby, not rarely twining. Leaves almost always 

 opposite or vvhorled, destitute of stipules. Inflorescence terminal, pseudo-axillary, 

 or sometimes axillary, cymose, often umbelliform. Bracts small or minute. The 

 tube of monadelphous filaments, commonly named gynostegium (a term which has 

 been applied also to the anther-portion), we call the column. 



PERIPLOCA GR.ECA, L., a woody climbing plant of the Old World, in ornamental culti- 

 vation, and in one or two places inclined to be spontaneous, represents the tribe or suborder 

 Periplocece, with granulose pollen loosely aggregated in two masses in each anther-cell. All 

 the American genera have a single firm-waxy pollen-mass to each anther-cell, i.e. they 

 belong to the suborder ASCLEPIADE^E. 



TRIBE I. CYNANCHE/E. Anthers tipped with an inflexed or sometimes erect 

 scarious membrane ; the polliniferous cells lower than the top of the stigma : pol- 

 linia suspended, attached in pairs (one of each adjacent cell of different anthers) to 

 the corpuscle or gland. 



* Crown (corona) or appendages to the corolla or anclrcecium none. 



1. ASTEPHANUS. Calyx destitute of glands. Corolla urceolate or short-campanulate, 

 5-clcft ; the lobes slightly and dextrorsely convolute : stamens inserted on the base of its 

 tube. Top of the stigma obtusely conical or more elevated. Follicles smooth. 



* * Crown double ; the exterior annular, interior of 5 flat fleshy or hood-like scales or 

 processes. 



2. PHILIBERTIA. Calyx minutely 5-glandular within. Corolla open-campanulate or 

 (in all ours) rotate ; the lobes dextrorsely convolute, narrowly overlapping. Exterior 

 crown a membranaceous ring adnate to the base of the corolla ; interior of 5 scales adnate 

 to the base of the usually very short stamen-tube or column. Top of stigma flat or um- 

 bonate, or with a short 2-cleft beak. Follicles rather thick, smooth, acuminate. 



