744 Asclepiadaceae. 
424, (2.) Glossonema Decsne. 
Calyx 5-partite. Corolla-tube short; lobes 5, suberect or spreading, 
overlapping to the left, but scarcely twisted in the bud, often 
tuberculate or thickened below the apex. Corona of 5 lobes arising 
from the tube of the corolla a little above the origin of the staminal- 
column or at the mouth, alternating with the corolla-lobes, usually 
free and variable in form, rarely connate into a 5-lobed tube. 
Staminal-column arising at or below the middle of the corolla-tube; 
anthers terminated by erect or inflexed membranous appendages. 
Pollen-masses pendulous, solitary in each anther-cell, attached in 
pairs to the pollen-carriers by short or almost obsolete caudicles. 
Style sometimes exserted beyond the anthers. Follicles variable, 
echinate or smooth. Seeds flat, with entire or toothed margins, 
crowned with a tuft of hairs. — Dwarf perennial or rarely annual 
herbs, with opposite leaves. Cymes lateral or sublateral between 
the bases of the petioles, few-or many-flowered. or the flowers 
solitary, small. 
Species few mostly natives of Tropical Africa but extending into North 
Africa and from Arabia to Scinde. 
1047. Glossonema Boveanum Decsne. in Ann. Scienc. Nat. Ser. 2 
Vol. IX (1835), p. 335 tab. 12 fig. D. — Boiss. Flor. Or. IV, p. 62. 
— Aschers.-Schweinf. Ill. Flor. d’Eg., p.105 no.685. — Glossonema 
affine N. KE. Br. in Kew Bulletin (1895), p. 249. — Petalostemma 
Chenopodii R. Br. in Salt Voy. Abyss. Append. XIV, name only. — 
A dwarf herb 9—20 cm high, branching from the base. Stems 
ascending, more or less pubescent with white hairs. Leaves spreading; 
petiole 2—9 mm long; blade 8—25 mm long, 2’/,—11 mm broad, 
ovate, or ovate-lanceolate, acute or obtuse, cuneately narrowed or 
broadly rounded into the petiole at the base, more or less undulate 
or crisped on the margins, thinly or densely white-pubescent on 
both sides or glabrous above. Flowers 1—3_ together, sublateral; 
pedicels 2—21/, mm long, white-pubescent. Sepals 21/,—2?/, mm 
long, lanceolate, acute, pubescent. Corolla-tube 2 mm long, cam- 
panulate; lobes spreading, 21/,—5 mm long, 8—2,5 mm_ broad, 
oblong or oblong-ovate, obtuse or subacute, slightly thickened above 
or subtuberculate near the apex, with the margins recurved, glabrous 
or with a few hairs on the back. Coronal lobes arising a short 
distance below the sinuses of the corolla, 2°/,—5 mm long, 1 mm 
broad in the broadly oblong basal half, 3-lobed, with the middle 
lobe long and filiform, or subtruncately or somewhat abruptly con- 
tracted into a filiform or subulate point, or occasionally filiform- 
acuminte. Staminal-column 2 mm Jong; anther-appendages reniform, 
