340 ASCLEPIADACEAE. 



Family 6. ASCLEPIADACEAE Lindl. 

 MILKWEED FAMILY. 



Perennial herbs, vines or shrubs, mostly with milky juice, with esti- 

 pulate leaves, and cymose or umbellate, perfect regular flowers. Calyx 

 inferior, its tube very short, or none, its segments imbricated or separate in 

 the bud. Corolla campanulate, urceolate, rotate or funnelform, 5-lobed 

 or 5-cleft, the segments commonly reflexed. A 5-lobed or 5-parted crown 

 (corona) between the corolla and the stamens and adnate to one or the 

 other. Stamens 5, inserted on the corolla; filaments short, stout, mostly 

 monadelphous, or distinct ; anthers attached by their bases to the filaments, 

 introrsely 2-celled, connivent around the stigma, or more or less united with 

 each other ; anther-sacs tipped with an inflexed or erect scarious membrane, 

 or unappendaged at the top, sometimes appendaged at the base; pollen 

 coherent into waxy or granular masses, one or rarely two such masses in 

 each sac, connected with the stigma in pairs or fours, by 5 glandular cor- 

 puscles alternate with the anthers. Disk none. Ovary of 2 carpels; styles 

 2, short, connected at the summit by the peltate discoid stigma; ovules 

 numerous in each carpel, mostly anatropous, pendulous. Fruit of 2 follicles. 

 Seeds compressed, usually appendaged by a long coma; endosperm carti- 

 laginous; embryo nearly as long as the seed; cotyledons flat. About 220 

 genera and 2,000 species of wide distribution. 



Pollinia granular ; vines. 1. Cryptostegia. 



Pollinia waxy. 



Erect herbs, shrubs or trees. 



Corona-segments with an internal horn. 2. Asclepias. 



Corona-segments spurred on the back. 3. Calotropis. 



Vines. 



Corona simple. 4. Metastelma. 



Corona double. 5. Philibertella,. 



1. CRYPTOSTEGIA K. Br. Bot. Keg. pi. 435. 1820. 



Glabrous, high-climbing vines, with, broad opposite leaves and large 

 flowers in terminal cymes. Calyx 5-parted, the segments lanceolate. Corolla 

 funnelform, the tube short, the throat campanulate, the limb 5-lobed, the lobes 

 dextrorsely twisted ; corona-scales 5, subulate, entire or 2-lobed. Stamens borne 

 at the base of the corolla- tube ; filaments filiform, short; anthers connivent 

 around the convex stigma, acute; pollen granular, the grains cohering in small 

 masses. Follicles thick, woody, divergent, ribbed and 3-winged. Seeds comose. 

 [Greek, hidden integument.] Two known species, the following typical, the 

 other native of Madagascar. 



1. Cryptostegia grandiflora E. Br. Bot. Eeg. pi. 435. 1820. 



A stout vine, 2 m. long or longer, the twigs glabrous or nearly so. Leaves 

 elliptic, subcoriaceous, 5-9 cm. long, acute or short-acuminate at the apex, 

 obtuse or somewhat narrowed at the base, glabrous on both sides, the rather 

 stout petioles 1-2 cm. long; inflorescence puberulent; cymes few-several-flow- 

 ered; sepals broadly lanceolate, acuminate, puberulent, about 1.5 cm. long; 

 corolla pink-purple without, white within, 5-6 cm. long, its lobes ovate; follicles 

 widely divergent, glabrous, pointed, 10-12 cm. long. 



Scrub-lands, escaped from cultivation, New Providence and Inagua : Escaped 

 from cultivation in Cuba and in Florida. Native home unknown, probably East In- 

 dian. RUBBER-VINE. 



