ASCLEPIADACE-,E. (lIILKWEED FAMILY.) 361 



obov'oid, 1 - 2-seeded. Seeds naked, club-shaped, furrowed. Radicle thick, 

 inferior. — Shrubs. Leaves alternate. Cymes long-peduncled, opposite the 

 leaves. 



1 V. chiococcoides, 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. — 

 Loaves l^'-2' long. Corolla 3" long. Drupe 4" long, 1-seeded. 



Order 103. ASCI^EPIADACE^. (Milkweed Family.) 



Erect or twining herbs or shrubs, with milky juice, entire commonly 

 opposite leaves without stipules, and tunbellate 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 (^gynosteyhnii) which encloses the ovaries, 

 and bears appendages of various fonns, 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. 



Tribe I. ASCLEPIADS^. — Pollen-masses 10, fixed by pairs to the cleft processes of 

 the flat or conical stigma, pendulous. 

 « Stamineal crown single, 5-leaved. 

 ■>- Lobes of the corolla reflexed or spreading. 



1. ASCLEPIAS. Leaves of the crown enclosing a horn-like appendage. 



2. ACERATES. Leaves of the crown without appendages. 



H- ^- Lobes of the corolla erect. 



3. P0D0STI6MA. Stigma long-pedicel led. Corolla smooth wavj-. Stem erect. 



4- METASTELMA. Stigma sessile or pedicelled. Corolla downy within. Stems twining. 



* * Stamineal crown single, 5-lobed. 

 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. 



Tribe II. CrONOLOBE.^. — Pollen-masses 10, fixed by pairs at the angles of the 

 depressed stigma, horizontal. 

 8. GONOLOBUS. Crown simple, annular. Stems twining. Leaves cordate. 



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