76 OF THE OTHER ORDERS 



to the local or general floras or descriptions of plants, 

 with which you are, probably, already provided. 



The Asclepiadeje, nearly allied to the preceding 

 order, shall be our next natural family of the fifth 

 class, and second order ; and here, if you examine 

 closely, you will probably find a difficulty in making 

 out either what are the stamens or the pistils, so dif- 

 ferent is the arrangement and consistence of these 

 parts in Asclepias, Swallow-wort, or Silk-weed, from 

 those of most other plants ; and we confess, that, but 

 for their relation with the decidedly pentandrous Apo- 

 cymim, we should certainly place this genus in Gynan- 

 dria, its genuine artificial station. 



In this genus the calyx is also very small, and 5- 

 parted ; the corolla rotate, 5-parted, and reflected 

 backwards from its first opening. The next set of 

 organs, which now present themselves, are not the 

 stamens, as usual ; you will, at once, perceive that 

 they are of the nature of an inner corolla. By Lin- 

 naeus such processes were confounded with the nec- 

 tary, or secreting honeyed glands of flowers. I ventur- 

 ed to give them the epithet of lepanihia, inner scales 

 or petals. In this genus, this process, connected be- 

 low to the corolla, is divided into 5 parts, each of 

 which is hollow or ear-shaped, sending out from with- 

 in its base a subulate or awl-shaped averted process, 

 bent towards the summit of the stigma. The anthers 

 are 5 crustaceous bodies, adhering about the mid- 

 dle to the stigma, consisting of so many pairs of cells 

 for the reception of the pollen, which is collected 

 into five pairs of club-shaped, yellow, wax-like, solid 

 masses, suspended from the 5 angles of the summit 

 of the stigma ; each pair of these pollen masses has 

 not, however, a corresponding set of antheroid cells 

 for their reception, but each pair passes into the con- 

 tiguous cavities of 2 pair of the receiving cells. But 



