i8o SOUTH AFRICAN FLOWERING PLANTS. 



free, central placenta. There are really five carpels; 

 and the way this central column appears to have been 

 made, is by the carpels having their basal parts only 

 growing up to form the column, no ovules being borne 

 by the parietal margins, which are coherent to form the 

 single chamber, as in the violet and poppy. 



General Descrij^tion of. the Primrose Family. 



Herbs. 



Leaves — Opposite or alternate. 



Flowers — Calyx and corolla, 4- to 5-lobed ; stamens, 

 4 to 5 adherent in front of the petals; staminodes 

 sometimes present; ovary, free, 1-celled, with free, 

 central placenta. 



Fruit — Capsule. 



Asclepiadeae. 



The Stapelia Family. 



This order contains some 1300 species of 146 

 genera in 7 tribes, scattered over the warmer regions 

 of both hemispheres ; but especially abundant in South 

 Africa, where it has 48 genera, of which Stapelia has 

 about 90 species. 



Many of the genera are stem-climbing plants. This 

 is done by all stem-climbers in much the same way. 

 The shoot continues to circumnutate, and as it lengthens 



