Both the Smooth and Prickly Acanthus are moslly kept in the 

 nurseries for the purpose of sale. 



The Shrubby species of Acanthus may be propagated with the 

 greatest certainty by sowing seed that has been procured from abroad, 

 in pots; to be plunged in a bark-bed in the stove until the plants are 

 raised, when they are to be managed in the same manner as other 

 hot-house plants. Layers and cuttings likewise sometimes succeed, 

 when planted in pots and placed in the same situations. 



2. ASCLEPIAS TUBEROSA, 



ORANGE APOCYNUM. 



THIS genus comprises various plants of the flowery, perennial, 

 herbaceous, and shrubby exotic sorts; and of the Swallow-wort and 

 Dog's-bane kinds. 



It belongs to the class and order Pentandria Digynia, and ranks 

 in the natural order of Contortce. 



The characters of which are: that the calyx is a five-cleft, sharp, 

 very small, permanent perianthium. The corolla monopetalous, flat 

 or reflex, five-parted: the divisions ovate-acuminate, slightly bending 

 with the sun. The nectaries five, growing to the tube of the fila- 

 ments below the anthers, fleshy, or cowled; protruding from the 

 bottom a sharp horn, bending inwards. The stamina consist of 

 five filaments collected into a tube, swelling at the base: the anthers 

 oblong, upright, and two-celled, terminated by an inflex membrane 

 lying on the stigma, having a reversed wing on each side, growing 

 broader downwards with its edge contiguous to the next. The pol- 

 len is collected into ten corpuscles, inversely lanceolate, flat, hanging 

 down into the cells of the anther by short threads, frequently flex- 

 uose; which are annexed by pairs to five cartilaginous, twin tuber- 

 cles, each placed on the tip of the wings of the anthers, adhering to 



