474 ASCLEPIADACE^E. Cydadtuia. 



ovato, several-ribbed from or near the base ami with a stronger midrib, the base 

 contracted into a conspicuous margined ])etiole : peduncles terminal, becoming 

 lateral, scapo-liko, c.ymosely or corymbosoly fuw-llowered j the bracts alternate : 

 pedicels iilil'oriii, much t\visi(Hl after ilowering : corolla rose-color or puiplu. — PI. 

 llartw. 'i'1'1, k (^uM. ri. ii. 7l'8. 



1. C. humilis, Dtnth. 1. c. Glabrous throughout and green, or with minute 

 hoarinuss wliun young : leaves ovato or sometimes obovate, thickish, 1 to 3 inches 

 long. 



" Mountains of the Sacramento" (Ifarlweg), of Sliasta Co. (Brewer), and of PUimas Co., Le7n- 

 mon, &.C. Corolla three I'ourtlis and the lol)c.>i ono fourth of an inch in length, in.sertod on a thin 

 Ihit disk at the bottom of the cal} \, surrounding the nearly entire saucer-shaped nectary which 

 characterizes the genus. 



2. C. tomentosa, Ciray. Tomentose-hirsute throughout : leaves ovate and ob- 

 long-ovate (l! or S iueliiis long, besides the petiole) : calyx hirsute. 



Plumas Cu., lietween lily Meadows and Indian Valley, with the preceding (of which it may be 

 only a variety), Lciiiihuh. 



Ouni:u LXI. ASCLEPIADACE^. 



Ilorba (as to tomperate regions), with milky Juice, no stipules, and regidar llowors 



with the parts in live, except that there are two carpels with distinct ovaries, but a 



common stigma ; the stamens surrounding and attached to this j the pollen in solid 



masses, in ours all the pollen of each anther-cell in one waxy mass. Leaves entire, 



generally opposite, sometimes wliorled, rarely alternate. Calyx and corolla in ours 



almost valvate. Flowers usuall}'- in simple umbels. Fruit a pair of follicles. Seeds 



almost always with a coma of silky down. 



A largo order, nearly related only to the preceding, from which the peculiarities of tlio 

 stamens, mentioned above, readily distinguish it, widely distributed over the temperate and 

 warmer parts of the world, but very scanty in Europe, and feebly represented on the Pacific side 

 of North America. The sensible propeitics nearly tbose of Apocynucea:, the juice more or less 

 acrid and containing caoutchouc, and the inner bark (especially in Asclcpia.s) abounding with 

 very tough bast-libre. 



* Erect herbs : a hooded appendage (nectary) behind each anther. 



1. Aaclepias. An incurved horn or projecting crest from the cavity of each hooded appendage. 



2. Goni pilocarpus. Ko horn to the api)endage3. 



» ♦ Twining herbs. 



3. Sarcostemma. Crown a ring in the tluoat of the rotate corolla : pollen -mas.ses vertical. 



4. Lachuostoma. Crown as in ^st^cyws.- pollen -nuisses horizontal, ^ac Apjjendix. 



1. ASCLEPIAS, Linn. Milkweed. Silkweed. 



Calyx and corolla both deeply 5-parted ; the divisions small and reflexed. Fila- 

 ments inserted on the very base of the corolla, monadelphons, short, often very- 

 short, crowned behind each anther with a conspicuous hood-liko ap[)endage, from 

 the cavity of which rises a subulate and \isnally falcate horn : anthers conniving 

 around and adherent to the solid stigma, their thiu and broad scarious tips inllexed 

 over its truncate summit, the wing-like cartilaginous edges meeting and more or 

 less projecting between the hoods : wax-like pollen-mass of each cell pear-shaped, 

 tapering above into a stalk by which it is suspended, along with a pollen-mass from 

 an adjacent anther, to a black gland affixed to the upper edge of the stigma alter- 



