ASCLEPIADACEJE. (MILKWEED FAMILY.) 361 
obovoid, 1-2-seeded. Seeds naked, club-shaped, furrowed. Radicle thick, 
inferior. — Shrubs. Leaves alternate. Cymes long-peduncled, opposite the 
leaves. 
1. V. chiocoecoides, Kunth. Smooth; leaves lanceolate-oblong, acute 
at each end, short-petioled ; cymes forking, spreading, as long as the leaves, 
many-flowered ; lobes of the corolla linear, shorter than the tube, hairy within ; 
style slender; stigma 2-lobed, globose below the apex.— South Florida. — 
Leaves 1j'—2'long. Corolla 3" long. Drupe 4" long, 1-seeded. 
Orper 1034. ASCLEPIADACEZE. (Mirxweep FauiLY.) 
Erect or twining herbs or shrubs, with milky juice, entire commonly 
opposite leaves without stipules, and umbellate or cymose flowers. — Ca- 
lyx 5-parted, persistent. Corolla 5-parted, mostly valvate in the bud, 
hypogynous, deciduous. Stamens 5, inserted on the base of the corolla, 
the filaments united in a tube Üahewigini) which encloses the ovaries, 
and bears appendages of various forms, which are collectively termed the 
stamineal crown. Anthers erect, 2— 4-celled, expanding above into a thin 
membrane. Pollen united in flattened waxy pear-shaped masses, which 
are equal in number to the cells of the anthers, and fixed to the five an- 
gular processes of the stigma by a slender stalk, pendulous or horizontal. 
Styles 2, the thick and fleshy stigma common to both. Fruit a follicle. 
Seeds anatropous, imbricated on the thick and at length free placenta, 
and commonly bearing at the hilum a tuft of hairs (coma), Embryo 
straight in thin albumen. Cotyledons leafy. 
Synopsis. 
— I. ASCLEPIADEZ, — Pollen-masses 10, fixed by pairs to the cleft processes of 
the flat or conical stigma, pendulous. ; 
x Btamineal crown single, 5-leaved. - 
4+ Lobes of the corolla reflexed or spreading. 
1l. ASCLEPIAS. Leaves of the crown enclosing a horn-like appendage. 
2. ACERATES. Leaves of the crown without appendages. 
+ + Lobes of the corolla erect. 
3. PODOSTIGMA. Stigma long-pedicelled. Corolla smooth, wavy- jan uno. 
4. METASTELMA. Stigma sessile or pedicelled. Corolla downy within. Stems twining. 
* * Stamineal crown single, 5-lobed. j 
5 SEUTERA. Stigma conical. Crown deeply 5-parted. 
6. CYNOCTONUM. Stigma flat. Crown crenately 5-lobed. 
*» * + Stamineal crown double. 
7. SARCOSTEMMA. Outer crown annular ; the inner one 5-leaved. : 
Tame 11. GONOLOBEÆ. — Pollen-masses 10, fixed by pairs at the angles the 
depressed stigma, ded 
: & GONOLOBUS. UEM Meg, tar Stems twining. Leaves cordate. - 
& 3. = 
