Qompkqcarpu><.] LXXX. ASCLEPIAbEJi. 999 



Peduncles axillary, 1 to l^in. long, bearing an umbel of from 4 to 8 rather 

 large white flowers on long hoary-pubescent pedicels. Sepals linear. Corolla 

 reflexed ; segments elliptic. Cuculli 5, teeth extrorse, reflexed. Stigma 5- 

 angled. Follicles large, obovate, pointless, papery, echinate. 



Hab.: Brazil. Naturalised in many parts of the colony. It very closely resembles G. 

 fi-utieostis, and I think it is only a form of that African species. G. brasilien$is stands our 

 climate well, whereas South African plants soon die out in Queensland. 



5. *ASCLEPIAS, Linn. 

 (The Greek name of the .ffisculapius of the Latins.) 

 Sepals glandular within. Corolla rotate, lobes often reflexed, naked, valvaie. 

 Corona-scales 5, erect, adnate to the column, spoon-shaped. Anther-tips 

 membranous, inflexed. Pollen-masses 1 in each cell, pendulous, flattened, waxy. 

 Stigma depressed, 5-angled. Follicles turgid, beaked, smooth. Seeds comose. — 

 Perennial erect herbs. Leaves opposite, alternate or whorled. Cymes umbelli- 

 form. Fowers medium-sized or small. 

 Species mostly American. 



1. A., curassavica (Curassavian), Linn.; DC. Prod. viii. 566. Bedhead, 

 Wallflower Oottoa-bush, Madagascar Cotton-bush, or Milky Cotton-bush. 

 An erect, few-branched, soft-wooded plant, with a milky sap. Leaves 

 opposite, lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, acute, narrowed into a short petiole, 

 glabrous. Umbels many-flowered, shortly pedunculate. Corolla rotate, orange- 

 red ; lobes reflexed, column stipitate. Follicles glabrous, 4 to 5in. long. 



Hab. : West Indies. Naturalised in many localities. 



6. VINCETOXICUM, Moench. 



(An antidote to poison.) 



Corolla nearly rotate, deeply divided into 6 lobes, contorted in the bud, the 

 right-hand edges usually overlapping. Corona simple, of 6 membranous 

 erect segments, either distinct from the base or (in species not Australian) 

 united in a lobed cup encircling the gynostegium. Anthers terminating in a 

 membrane. Pollen-masses 2 to each anther, pendulous, but sometimes laterally 

 attached below the top. Stigma short, obtuse, truncate or minutely 2-lobed. 

 — Herbs, with twining trailing or rarely erect stems. Leaves herbaceous or 

 rarely somewhat fleshy. Peduncles interpetiolar, bearing 2 or more umbels or 

 an irregular cyme, or rarely a single umbel. 



The genus is widely dispersed over the temperate as well as the warmer regio is of the globe, 

 but the Australian species are all endemic. The whole genus is very closely allied to 

 Gynoctonum and Gynanchum, being distinguished from the latter by the want of any inner lobes 

 to the corona, and from both by the more deeply lobed or 5-partite corona. — Benth. Sir J. D. 

 Hooker suppresses the genus in his Fl. Brit. Ind. iv. 



Corona- segments nearly as long as the gynostegium, truncate, obtuse or 

 scarcely acuminate. Leaves ovate or ovate-lanceolate, sometimes cordate, 

 membranous 1. F. ovatum. 



Corona-segments abruptly acuminate, the point short, curved over the 

 gynostegium. Corolla-lobes ovate-lanceolate. Leaves ovate, slightly 

 fleshy 2. V. elegans. 



Corona-segments tapering into erect points shortly exceeding the gynostegium. 

 Corolla-lobes narrow-acuminate. Leaves oblong or linear, slightly fleshy . 3. V. carnomm. 



Corona-segments with slender points more than twice as long as the gynos- 

 tegium. Leaves cordate-ovate, acuminate, membranous . . ... 4. V, leptolepin. 



Corona composed of oblong, apiculate, glossy, thick scales. Leaves rotund- 

 ovate, cordate at the base 5. V. pachylepis. 



