276 MILKWEED FAMILT. 



88. ASCLEPIADACE^, MILKWEED FAMILY. 



Plants witb milky juice, leaves, pistils, fruits, and seeds nearly as 

 in the preceding family ; but the anthers more connected with the 

 stigma, their pollen collected into firm waxy or granular masses 

 (mostly 10), the short filaments (monadelphous except in the last 

 genus) commonly bear curiotis appendages behind the anthers form- 

 ing what is called a crown, and the corolla more commonly valvate 

 in the bud. The flowers are rather too difficult for the beginner 

 readily to understand throughout. For a particular study of them 

 the Manual must be used. 



§ 1. Erect herbs, with ordinary foliage, and deeply 5-paried reflexed calyx and 

 corolla. Flowers in simple umbels. Fruit a pair of pods {follicles, ) containing 

 numerous flat seeds furnished with a coma (Lessons, p. 135, fig. 317) or long 

 tuft of sojt down at one end. 



1. ASCLEPIAS. Stamens with their short filaments monadelphous in a ring or 



tube, bearing behind each anther a curious erect and hood-lilie or ear-like 

 appendage, with a horn projecting out of the inside of it: the 5 broad anthers 

 closely sniTounding and partly adhering to the Tery thick stigma, a mem- 

 branous appendage at their tip inflected over it. Each of the 2 cells of the 

 anther has a firm waxy pear-shaped pollen-mass in it: and the two adja- 

 cent masses from two contiguous anthers are suspended by a stalk from a 

 dark gland ; these 5 glands, borne on the margin of the flat top of the stigma, 

 stick to the legs, &c. of insects, and are carried off, each gland taking with it 

 2 pollen masses, the whole somewhat resembling a pair of saddle-bags. 



2. ACEEATES. Like Asclepias, but no horn in the noods or ear-like appendages, 



and the flowers always gi'eenish. 



§ 2. Twining plants with ordinary foliage ; pods and seeds nearly as in Asclepias. 



* Anthers with their hanging poUen-^masses nearly as Asclepias : pods smooth and even. 

 8. ENSLENIA. Calyx and corolla 5-parted, the diyisions lance-ovate and nearly 



erect. The 5 appendages of the filaments are in the form of membranaceous 

 leaflets, each bearing a pair of awns on their truncate tip. Herb. 

 4, VINCETOXICUM. Corolla 5-parted, wheel-shaped. A flat and fleshy 

 5 - 10-lobed disk or crown in place of the hoods of Asclepias. Herbs. 



» * The 10 poUenr-masses horizontal, fixed in pairs to 5 glands of the stigma. 

 6. GONOLOBUS. Corolla wheel-shaped: a fleshy and wary-lobed ring or crown 

 in its throat. 



* * * The 10 short pnUen-masses fixed by their base in pairs to the 5 glands of the 



stigma, and erect. Shrubby plants, of tropical regions. 

 6. HOYA. Corolla wheel-shaped, 5-lobed, thick and wax-like in appearance. 



Crown of 5 thick and depressed fleshy appendages radiating from the central 



column. 

 1. STEPHANOTIS. Corolla salvei^shaped, the tube including the stamens, 



crown, &c., in its somewhat swollen base, the 6 ovate lobes convolute in the 



bud. Crown of 6 thin erect appendages. Stigma conical. 



* * * « Anthers distinct, the 5 pollen-masses each composed of 4 small granular 



masses united, and applied directly to the glands of the stigma without any stalk. 

 Shrvdby twiners. 



8. PEEIPLOCA. Corolla 5-parted, wheel-shaped, the divisions hairy on the 



upper face: alternate with them are 5 small thick scales, each bearing a 

 bristle-shaped appendage. Filaments distinct, bearing anthers of more ordi- 

 nary appearance than in the rest of this family. Stigma hemispherical. 

 Pods smooth. 



§ 3. Fleshy low plants, Cactus-like, with only small fleshy scales or teeth in place of 

 leaver, on the angles of the thickened stems or branches. 



9. STAPELIA. Flowers large, lurid, solitary,, lateral. Calyx 5-parted. Corolla 



5-cleft, wheel-shaped: within is a crown fonned of two rings of short appen- 

 dages or lobes. Masses of waxy pollen 10, erect. 



