HENDERSON'S HANDBOOK OF PLANTS. 



ART 



Articulations. The places where one thing 

 is joined with another. 



Artocarpacece, (Artocarpece, Artocarpads.) 

 A group of apetalous trees, belonging to 

 Lindley's Urtical Alliance, not unlike the 

 Plane Trees of Europe; but for the 

 most part inhabiting the tropics. They 

 abound in a milky juice, and have, 

 for the most part, their female flowers 

 collected into fleshy masses or heads. 

 Moreover, they have great sheathing, 

 convolute stipules, like those of a Fig 

 Tree. The more important genera are 

 Artocarpus and Anliaris. 



Artocarpads. The English term for Ario- 

 carpacece. 



Asafodida. A drug formed of the concreted 

 milky juice of Narthex, and of various spe- 

 cies of Ferula. 



Asarinece. A synonym of Aristolochiacece. 



Ascending, Ascendent. Directed upward, 

 as the stem, which is the ascending axis; 

 rising upward with a curve from the hori- 

 zontal to a vertical position, as many stems. 



Asci. The name of the fruit-bearing cells 

 in the important division of Fungi called 

 Ascomycetes. These may be thread- 

 shaped, cylindrical like little sausages, 

 clavate, or sub-globose. In the latter 

 case they are mostly few in number, and 

 are occasionally reduced to one in each 

 cyst or perithecium, as in Sphcerotheca, to 

 which genus belongs the felted Mildew 

 of Kose-leaves and the Hop Mildew. 

 This is the species known as the Fungus 

 of the Cutting Bench. See " Propaga- 

 tion of Plants by Cuttings." 



Ascigero us. Having asci, which see. 



Aaddium. A pitcher; various modifica- 

 tions of leaves containing or capable of 

 holding fluid, such as are found in Sarra- 

 cenia, Nepenthes, Cephalotus, or even Utric- 

 ularia. 



ASC 



AsclepiadacecB,(Asclepiadeoe, Asclepiads, Apo- 

 cynece in part.) Among monopetalous 

 Exogens with a superior ovary, the very 

 large natural order which bears this name 

 is known by its pollen being collected in 

 the form of waxy masses or bags, derived 

 from the separable inner lining of the 

 anther cells, and by the fruit consisting 

 most commonly of a pair of divaricating 

 follicles. The species differ from Apocy- 

 nacese, or Dogbanes, in the peculiar struc- 

 ture of the stamina! apparatus, the sta- 

 mens in the latter order being distinct, 

 the pollen powdery, the stigma not par- 

 ticularly dilated, and all these parts dis- 

 tinct the one from the other. But in 

 Asclepiads the whole of the sexual appa- 

 ratus is consolidated into a single body, 

 the center of which is occupied by a 

 broad, disk-like stigma, and the grains of 

 pollen cohere in the shape of waxy bod- 

 ies, which become attached finally to the 

 five corners of this stigma, to which they 

 adhere by the intervention of peculiar 

 glands. 



Fully 1,000 species are known, for the 

 most part inhabiting the tropics of the 

 Old and New Worlds. Two genera only 

 are found in northern latitudes, one of 

 which, Asclepias, has many species, and 

 is confined apparently to North Amer- 

 ica ; the other, Cynanchum, is remarkable 

 for extending from 59 north latitude 

 to 32 south latitude. A. Stapelia is 

 found in Sicily. They vary extremely 

 in appearance, many being leafless suc- 

 culents, like Stapelia; others (and they 

 are more numerous) consisting of twiners 

 like Hoya; while another portion con- 

 sists of upright herbaceous plants, such 

 as Asclepias and Vincetoxicum ; a few are 

 tropical trees. As a general rule the spe- 

 cies are poisonous ; an acrid milk which 



