ON THE ASCl/EPIADEiE. 229 



in the Baiiksian collection. Apocynum cordatum and lan- 

 ceolatum, Thunb. prod., probably likewise belong to the 

 genus ; and I have modified the character, to admit a very 

 remarkable plant, found by Mr. Masson in South Africa, 

 the stem of vrhich is shrubby with spinescent branches, the 

 leaves extremely minute, opposite, distant, and heartshaped ; 

 the corolla rather urceolate than bellshaped ; the orifice of 

 the tube furnished with deflected hairs; the masses of 

 pollen are fixed by their attenuated apices ; the stigma is 

 blunt ; the foUiculi nearly cylindrical and smooth, with seeds 

 of the usual structure. The whole genus is evidently [65 

 very near akin to Microloma, and diflfers chiefly in the want 

 of squamae within the tube. They might, therefore, be 

 united ; but this would lead to the junction also of Meta- 

 stelma, a native of the West India Islands, which I am 

 unwilling to join with these South African plants. 



II. 



Masses poUinis 20, Iseves, quaternatim (duabus antheris 

 pertinentes), aflixse apici corpusculorum exsulcorum stig- 

 matis. 



Filamenta connata, extus appendiculata. 



SECAMONE. [Periplocffi sp. Linn. 



Chak. Corolla rotata. 



Corona staminea 5phylla. 



Massa pollinis erectse quaternatim affixse apici corpusculi 

 subsirailis, exsulci stigmatis. 



Stigma apice coarctato. 



FoUiculi 



Habitus. Frutices erecti v. volubiles, glabri. Folia 

 opposita. C^7/7<« dichotomse, interpetiolares. Flores mvawii. 



Patria. Africa, India Orientalis, et Nova HoUandia 

 tropica. 



• Obs. Erom the extreme minuteness of the parts, no genus 



