:>54 Lxxxv. ASCLEPiADE^ (brown). [Batesantkvs. 



on a short slender stalk. Style shortly conical at the apex. Follicles 

 stout, erect, parallel, united at their base. Seeds flattened, keeled on 

 one face, densely fringed all round with very long white hairs, other- 

 wise glabrous. — A twining shrub with milky juice. Leaves opposite, 

 large, petiolate. Stipules frill-like reflexed. Flowers moderately large, 

 in long lax panicles. — Perithryx, Pierre in Bull. Soc. Linn. Paris, 

 1898, 65. 



Monotypie, endemic. 



A remarkable genus, very similar to Chlorocodon in habit and stipules, but with 

 a coronal structure more like that of Oymnolcema. 



1. B. purpureas, X. E, Br. in Hook. Ic. PI. t. 2500. A woody 

 twiner ; stems glabrous, slightly verrucose, chocolate-coloured. Leaves 

 distant; petiole \\ in. long; blade 6-7 in. long, 3-3J in. broad, oblong 

 or elliptic-oblong, cuspidate-acute, cordate at the base, glabrous on both 

 sides. Stipules interpetiolar, transverse, reflexed, toothed, very con- 

 spicuous. Panicle axillary, about 1 ft. long, including the 3-4 in. long 

 peduncle, lax, its branches lf-2 in. distant, opposite, |-2l in. long, 

 1-3-flowered ; bracts 1 lin. long, ovate-lanceolate, acute, very deciduous 

 leaving a ring-like scar; pedicels 3-7 lin. long, glabrous. Sepals 

 1-1 tV lin. long, J lin. broad, ovate, subacute, glabrous, minutely ciliolate. 

 Corolla large, rotate or with the lobes campanulately spreading, dark 

 purple, 5-lobed to within IJ lin. of the base; lobes 9 lin. long, 5-5 J lin. 

 broad, elliptic-oblong, very obtusely rounded at the apex, glabrous on 

 both sides, not ciliate. Corona indistinct, annular, shortly 5-lobed ; 

 lobes adnate to the base of the staminal-filaments, emarginate. Staminal- 

 filaments, about J lin. long, linear; anthers | lin. long, linear-oblong, 

 connate at the apex by their short ovate appendages, quite glabrous. 

 Style shortly conical at the apex, acute. Follicles about 4^ in. long^ 

 J in. thick, fusiform, shortly beaked, erect, parallel, connate for about 

 I in. at their base, glabrous. Seeds 4-5 lin. long, l|-2 lin. broad^ 

 lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, compressed, acutely keeled on one side, 

 fringed all round the margin (but more densely at the two ends), with 

 very long white hairs, otherwise glabrous, blackish. — K. Schum. in 

 Enf'l. & Prantl, Pflanzenfam. Nachtr. zum. ii.-iv. 286, and Nachtr. ii., 

 zum. ii.-iv. 60. — Perithryx glabra^ Pierre in Bull. Soc. Linn. Paris, 

 1898, 66. 



upper Guinea. Camercons : Efulen, Bates, 383 ! 



Ziower Guinea. Gaboon ; Libreville, on the Gaboon River, Klaine, 513 ! 



When enclosed in the follicles, some of the hairs around the margin of the seeds 

 are reflexed so as to conceal the glabrous sides, but they probably spread out when 

 the seeds are liberated from the follicle. 



5. CHLOROCODON, Hook. f. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. ii. 745. 



Calyx 5 -partite. Corolla campanulate-rotate, 5-lobed nearly to the 

 base; lobes overlapping to the left in bud. Corona of 5 lobes 

 arising from the base of the staminal-filaments, free to their base, very 



