135-2 
form flowers; éracts minute. Corona® consisting of 5 parts or lobes (hoods), 
usually present and situated between the corolla and the stamens, adnate to the 
one or the other. Drsk (hypogynous) wanting ; séamzens mostly monadelphous, 
their tube forming the column; anthers introrse, 2- or incompletely 4-celled, in 
Asclepias flattened, opening lengthwise (c. Fig. 6), and surmounted by a small 
membranous appendage (d. Fig. 6). Siy/es 2, generally distinct as far as the stig- 
matic body; sé#gma or stigmatose disk fleshy, consisting of a central portion or 
body common to both styles, from which are produced 5 corpuscles or glands, 
alternate with the anthers (e. Fig. 6). Poddzuta (Fig. 4) waxy masses of coherent, 
granular, compressed hexagonal, pollen cells. Each of the masses is furnished with 
a fine prolongation, these meet in pairs, the point of juncture being tipped with a 
minute, black, coriaceous appendage, sharply cleft at its inferior edge, the sides 
prolonging like the barbs of an arrowhead ; this appendage is situated between 
the apices of two contiguous anthers, and is connected with the stigmatic glands. 
Thus when the: pollen is withdrawn two anthers yield a cell’s contents each to the 
mass. /yuita pair of follicles except when aborted; seeds few or many, compressed, 
imbricate, generally margined, and furnished with a soft coma; eméryo straight; 
cotyledons foliaceous ; albumen thin. A general description of Asclepias is incor- 
porated in that of A. cornutum, 134. 
A word in regard to cross-fertilization in Asclepias. While drawing figure 2, 
plate 135, holding the flower by its peduncle, a large blue-bottle fly alighted upon 
the crown, as he did so one of his legs slipped down between two hoods,—which 
neatly curve to such a shape that the foot of an insect is guided directly into the 
crevice between two adjacent anther cells—and upon attempting to withdraw it he 
was unable to do so. Noting this, I teased him into many strong tugs and pulls, 
but the more he struggled the tighter his foot became wedged, until finally after 
about ten minutes’ hard work he flew off with a little yellow spot attached to the 
extremity. I caught him, plucked off the leg, and examined it under a lens: the 
claws were firmly wedged into the little cleft, before mentioned as existing in the 
coriaceous appendage of the pollen-masses, I afterward examined numerous heads 
of Asclepias cornuti, nearly always finding many captive insects, especially Wusce, 
some dead and others struggling ; and watched many more fly off with the fecun- 
dating element trailing after them. Others, too, arrived with pollen-masses, and 
by the same interesting procedure as described, left their burdens in the crown, 
thus executing without design the will of Nature. 
The plants of this order that are of particular interest to us, beside the two 
under consideration, are: Cundurango (Gonolobus Cundurango), the Spanish Mata- 
perro (the plant that—being announced and lauded as a cure for cancer—caused 
such a furor in medical and general circles in 1871 ; now considered worthless in 
cancer or any other disorder by those who were foremost in its advancement and 
use); and the curled-flowered Calatropis (Calatropis gigantea), a native of the 
East Indies. The other prominent medicines in this order are: The Indian emetic 
_ Secamone emetica, and purgative S. Thunbergti. The acrid juice of Syrian Peri- 
* Crown, nectary, lepanthium, 
