300 A sclepiadece-sA sclcpias. 



the name of Rhynchospermum jasminoldes, is very commonly 

 grown in conservatories for its pure white deliciously scented 

 flowers, and bears the popular name of Cape Jessamine, but it 

 is a native of Japan and China. It will succeed against a south 

 wall with slight protection in severe weather, though it does 

 not bloom freely without the warmth of a greenhouse. 



ORDER LXIX. ASCLEPIADE-3E. 



Herbs or shrubs often of twining or prostrate habit ; sap 

 usually milky. Leaves simple, opposite or whorled, rarely 

 scattered. In habit, and to a certain extent in structure, the 

 members of this group come very near the Apocynece, but the 

 lobes of the corolla are commonly valvate, and the anthers and 

 stigmas are consolidated, forming a column, and the pollen 

 coheres in wax-like masses. This character is common to this 

 order and the Orchids alone. The fruit is composed of two 

 erect or divergent follicles, occasionally reduced to one by 

 abortion ; and the seeds are almost invariably plumose. There 

 are about 150 genera and nearly 1,000 species belonging to 

 this group. They are chiefly tropical or sub-tropical, and espe- 

 cially numerous in South Africa, where there are many highly 

 curious succulent species. A few extend to the temperate 

 regions in the North. 



1. ASCLEPIAS. 



Erect herbaceous perennials ; roots often fleshy. Leaves 

 usually with conspicuous transverse veins. Flowers in simple 

 terminal or extra-axillary umbels. Lobes of the corolla long 

 and narrow, reflexed. Within the petals there is a coronet 

 seated upon the combined filaments, composed of 5 boat-shaped 

 processes having 5 projecting horns. Stamens 5, inserted upon 

 the base of the corolla. Pollen-masses 10, waxy, fixed to the 

 stigmas in pairs. Follicles normally 2, not coriaceous. Seeds 

 bearing a tuft of silky hairs at one end. There are upwards of 

 twenty-five species, mostly from America, many of which occur 

 in the temperate regions of the North. The name is the Greek 

 form of JEsculapius, to whom the genus is dedicated. 



1. A. tuberosa. Butterfly-weed or Pleurisy-root. An erect 

 hairy plant about 18 inches high. Leaves linear to oblong- 

 lanceolate, nearly sessile. Flowers small, numerous, terminal, 

 or towards the summit borne in corymbose umbels. Petals 



