ON THE ASCLEPIADEjE. 207 



Masses pollinis basi affixse, altero margine cartilagineo- 

 pellucido. 



Stic/ma muticum. 



Folliculi subcylindracei, laeves. Setnina comosa. 



Habitus. Plantee carnosae, aphyllse, angulatse, ssepe m 

 tuberculatae. Mores, utphirimum speciosi, odore nauseoso, 

 stercorario. 



Patria. Africa Australis, prsesertim in planitiis desertis, 

 argillaceis, Karroo nuncupatis. 



Obs. The essential character of this extensive and sin- 

 gular genus, consists, according to Linnaeus and all subse- 

 quent botanists, in the double corona. But I have already 

 shewn, that certain plants that have been referred to it, 

 and which entirely accord in habit, have a corona of a 

 single series ; and it will hereafter appear, that other, and 

 very different genera, agree with Stapelia in this part of its 

 structure. The genus, even as it is here limited, is capable 

 of further subdivision ; and I have little doubt, that when 

 the species become better known, such a subdivision will 

 be found expedient, and probably from characters like the 

 following, by which, in the mean time, it may be disposed 

 into very natural sections. 



/. Corona exterior '^phylla, foliolis indivisis. 



Stapelia hirsuta, Linn, sororia, Mass. vetula, Mass. 

 ambigua, Mass. asterias, Mass. glandulifera, Mass. 

 stellaris, Jacq. ined. 



II. Corona exterior ^partita, laciniis bifidis. 



Stapelia revoluta, Mass. pedunculata, Mass. verru- [25 

 cosa, Mass. mixta, Mass. variegata, Linn, lepida, Jacq. 

 ined. 



III. Corona exterior Xphylla, indivisa vel ciliato-multiflda . 



StapeUa articulata, Hort. Kew. et Mass. geminata, Mass., 

 aliaeque ineditse, in Museo Banksiano, spir. vin. asservatse. 



