ASCLEPIADACEJE. (MILK WEED FAMILY.) 861 



obovoid, 1-2-eeeded. Seeds naked, club-shaped, furrowed. Radicle thick, 

 interior. — Shml>s. Leaves alternate.. Cymes long-peduncled, opposite the 

 leaves. 



1- V. chiococcoides, Kunth. Smooth; leaves lanceolate-oblong, acute 

 at each end, short-petioled ; cynics forking, spreading, as long as tin.' [i 

 man v -flowered ; lohes of the corolla linear, shorter than the tube, hairy within ; 

 style Blender; stigma 2-lobed, globose below the apex. — South Florida. — 

 Leaves l£'- 2' long. Corolla 3" long. Drupe 4" long, 1-secded. 



Order 103. ASCEEPIADACE^]. (Milkweed Family.) 



Erect or twining herbs or shrubs, with milky juice, entire communis- 

 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 (gynostegium) 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. 



Tribe I. ASCLEPIADEj;. —Pollen-masses 10, fixed by pairs to thecleft processes of 

 the flat or conical stigma, pendulous. 

 * Stamineal crown single, 5-leaved. 

 ■i- 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. 



+- +- Lobes of the corolla erect. 



3. PODOSTTGMA. Stigma long- pedicel led. Corolla smooth, wavy. 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. CYXOCXONUJL Stigma flat. Crown crenately 5 lobed. 



» * * Stamineal crown double. 

 7- SARCOSTEMMA. Outer crown annular ; the inner one 5-leaved. 



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

 depressed stigma, horizontal. 

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

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