.288 Lxxxv. ASCLEPIADE.E (brown). {Toxocavpus, 



ImOWBT Guinea. Lower Congo : Sabuka, near Stanley Pool, Luja (ex De 

 Wildeman Sf Durand) . 



I have not seen a specimen of Rhtinchostigina Lujcsi, De Wild. & Durand, but 

 cannot find any character in the description to distinguish it from T. hrevipes. 



?). T. parviflorus, X. E. Br. Very similar to T. hrevipes in all 

 characters except that the pubescence on the stem is more spreading, 

 the leaves more oblong and less acute, drying light brown or dull grey 

 above ; the corolla is only 3J-4 lin. in diam., with a short campanulate 

 tube, and lobes 1 J-lf lin. long and about 2^ times as long as the tube, 

 not twisted in the bud. The coronal-lobes are nearly as in 1\ hrevipes, 

 and the apical part of the style is conoid-fusiform, acute. — Rhynchosiigma 

 jmrviflorum, Benth. in Hook. Ic. PI. xii. 78, and K. Schum. in Engl. 

 (fe Prantl, Pflanzenfam. iv. ii. 287. 



IiO\(rer Guinea. Gaboon River, Mann, 983 ! 



Possibly only a small-flowered variety of T. hrevipes, differing in the above par- 

 ticulars. 



13. MICROSTEPHANUS, N. E. Br. in Kew Bulletin, 189.'), 249. 



Calyx deeply 5-lobed. Corolla-tube short, campanulate; lobes 

 lanceolate, overlapping and twisted to the left in the bud. Corona of 

 5 minute lobes or teeth alternating with the anthers at their base. 

 Staminal-column arising a little above the bottom of the corolla-tube ; 

 filamental part very short ; anthers oblong, erect, very convex on the 

 back, their horny margins or wings, which form the fissures leading to 

 the stigmatic cavities, being strongly incurved towards the centre of the 

 flower, forming 5 grooves between the anthers ; appendages suberect, 

 membranous. Pollen-masses pendulous, solitary in each anther-cell, 

 attached in pairs to the pollen-carriers by very short caudicles. Style 

 produced into a beak beyond the anther-appendages. Follicles lanceo-. 

 late, acuminate, smooth. Seeds crowned with a tuft of hairs. Perennials 

 with procumbent or twining stems, opposite leaves, and few-flowered 

 umbel-like cymes of small flowers, sublateral between the bases of the 

 petioles. 



A monotypic genus, native of Tropical Africa and Madagascar. I have separated 

 this genus Astephanus on account of the different structure of the anthers and 

 the presence of coronal-lobes, which although minute are distinctly evident when 

 searched for. In Astephanus I do not find the slightest trace of a corona, and the 

 anther-wings, which form the fissures opening to the stigmatic cavities, are rather 

 large and project outwards, but in Microstephanus the anther-wings are less 

 developed and are turned inwards towards the centre of the flower and form five 

 rather deep grooves between the anthers, which are much more convex on the back 

 than are the anthers of Astephanus. The generic name is formed from fiiKpos, 

 small, and arecpavos, a crown, in allusion to the small corona. 



1. M. cernuus, iV. B. Br. in Kev) Bulletin, 1895, 249. A small 

 twining or prostrate shrub, pubescent with short curved hairs on the 

 young stems all over or only along one line, and on the under or both 

 sides of the leaves, or entirely glabrous. Leaves spreading; petiole 



