104 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1899. 



with the filaments and connate with them, extending beyond the 

 so-caUed stigmatic disc, and forming a crested covering for the disc 

 at the same time. This series united with the lower portion of the 

 filaments is also connate with the disc. These scales have formed 

 so complete a union with the anthers, as to give the appearance of 

 wings to these organs, but the tracing beyond the apex of the 

 anther clearly indicates their original distinction. Coming now to 

 the disc, we find that its lobes are alternate with the scales, and 

 that they are opposite to the anthers. Terming all the various 

 -cycles of a flower independently of the carpellary or axial system, 

 staminal or petaliferous whorls, the substance of the disc may 

 reasonably be referred to a whorl of this character wdiich has had 

 its terminals bent over as the next outer whorl did, and unite 

 <o form a homogeneous succulent mass. 



This is more than a conception. The alternate development of 

 each cycle, just as we should expect them to be, brings the facts 

 close to a demonstration. But an examination of the carpellary 

 development makes the facts clearer. Taking a flower about to 

 fade, remove the nectaries, make a vertical section just above the 

 line of the petals, and then open the flower carefully, we find two 

 separate and distinct styles imbedded into the succulent base of the 

 disc. Though seemingly homogeneal Avith the disc mass, we can 

 with care note that they really terminate at this point. Not only 

 this, but we may see the stigmatic 2wints. As the flower dries, the 

 disc mass separates from the apex of the carpels, and falls with 

 what we may surely call the next corollary system. In Asclepias 

 JSyriaca, the union of the real stigma with the supposed stigmatic 

 disc has been so slight, that no sign of a cicatrice remains to mark 

 the earlier connection. 



The union of parts that Ave conceive to be normally separate is 

 so characteristic of Asclepias, that we see the evidence in many 

 ways. The breaking up of the quinary method in this way has 

 already been noted. In Asclepias tuberosa this is further seen at 

 the base of each umbel. Each flower, normally, is a primary 

 branch, with the subtending leaf in the axil from which it sprang. 

 But the bases of the flower branches with the subtending bracts 

 have become united and succulent, with only here and there the 

 point of a bract like the topmast of a sunken ship appearing just 

 above the surface. 



