300 A sclepiadcw—A sclepias. 
the name of Rhynchospérmuin yusiuinordes, is very commonly 
grown in conservatories for its pure white deliciously scented 
flowers, and bears the popular name of Cape Jessamine, but it 
is a native of Japan and China. It will succeed against a south 
wall with slight protection in severe weather, though it does 
not bloom freely without the warmth of a greenhouse. 
Orper LXIX—ASCLEPIADEA:. 
Herbs or shrubs often of twining or prostrate habit; sap 
usually milky. Leaves simple, opposite or whorled, rarely 
scattered. In habit, and to a certain extent in structure, the 
members of this group come very near the Apdcynew, but the 
lobes of the corolla are commonly valvate, and the anthers and 
stigmas are consolidated, forming a column, and the pollen 
coheres in wax-like masses. This character is common to this 
order and the Orchids alone. The fruit is composed of two 
erect or divergent follicles, occasionally reduced to one by 
abortion ; and the seeds are almost invariably plumose. There 
are about 150 genera and nearly 1,000 species belonging to 
this group. They are chiefly tropical or sub-tropical, and espe- 
cially numerous in South Africa, where there are many highly 
curious succulent species. A few extend to the temperate 
regions in the North. 
1. ASCLEPIAS. 
Erect herbaceous perennials; roots often fleshy. Leaves 
usually with conspicuous transverse veins. Flowers in simple 
terminal or extra-axillary umbels. Lobes of the corolla long 
and narrow, reflexed. Within the petals there is a coronet 
seated upon the combined filaments, composed of 5 boat-shaped 
processes having 5 projecting horns. Stamens 5, inserted upon 
the base of the corolla. Pollen-masses 10, waxy, fixed to the 
stigmas in pairs. Follicles normally 2, not coriaceous. Seeds 
bearing a tuft of silky hairs at one end. There are upwards of 
twenty-five specics, mostly from America, many of which occur 
in the temperate regions of the North. The name is the Greek 
form of Zsculupius, to whom the genus is dedicated. 
1. A. tuberésa. Butterfly-weed or Pleurisy-root.—An erect 
hairy plant about 18 inches high. Leaves linear to oblong- 
lanceolate, nearly sessile. Flowers small, numerous, terminal, 
or towards the summit borne in corymbese umbels. Petals 
