276 MU.KWEED FAMILY. 



88. ASCLEPIADACE^aS, MILKWEED FAMILY. 



Plants with milky juice, leaves, pistils, fruit?, 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 curious appendages behind (he anthers form- 

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

 in the bud. The flowers are i-ather too difficult for the beginner 

 readily to understand throughout. For a particular study of them 

 the Manual must be used. 



§ 1. £rfc( herbs, mth ordinary foliage, and deeply _ 5-parled rejlexed calyx ami 

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

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

 tuft of soft dmtm at one end, 



1. ASCLEPIAS. Stamens with their shoi-t filaments monadelphons in a ring ov 



tube, bearing behind each anther a curious erect and hood-hke or ear-lilse 

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

 closely surrounding and partly adhering to the very thiclt 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 oif, each gland taking with it 

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



2. ACEEATES. Like Asclepias, but no horn in the hoods oreaimke appendages, 



and the flowers always greenish. 



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



* Anthers with their hanging pollen-masses nearly as Asclepias : pods smooth and tvoi. 



3. ENSLENIA. Calyx and corolla 5-parted, the divisions 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 



6 - 10-lobed disk or crown in place of the hoods of Asclepias. Herbs. 



* * The 10 poUertr-masses horizontal, fxed in pairs to 5 glands of the stigma. 



5. GONOLOBUS. Corolla wheel-shaped : a fieshy and wiiry-lobed ring or crown 



in its throat. 



* « * The 10 sliort pollen-mosses fxed by their base in pairs to the & glands of tlw 



stigma, and ereil. 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 salver-shaped, the tube including the stamens, 

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

 bud. Crown of 5 thin erect appendages. Stigma conical. 



* # # * Anthers distinct, the 5 pollen-masses each composed of 4 small granuhir 



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

 Shrubby tioiners. 



8. PERIPLOCA. Corolla 5-parted, wheel-shaped, the divisions hairv on the 



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

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

 nary appearance than in the rest of this family, btigma hemispherical. 

 Pods smooth. 



§ 3. Fleshy Imo plants, Cactus-lihe, ivith only small fleshy scales or teeth in place of 

 leaves, on the angles of the tliickened stems or brunches. 



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



6-cleft, wheel-shaped: within is n crown formed of two rings of short appen- 

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



