ASCLEPIADACK.*:. (MILKWEED FAMILY.) 3G1 



obovoid, 1 - 2-secded. Seeds naked, clab-shaped, furrowed. Radicle thick, 

 interior. — Shrubs. Leaves alternate. Cymes long-peduncled, opposite the 



leaves. 



1 V. chiococcoides, Kunth. Smooth; leaves lanceolate-oblong, acute 

 at eaeh end, short-petiolcd ; cymes forking, spreading, as long as the leaves, 

 man} -Howered ; lobes of the corolla linear, shorter than the tube, hairy within ; 

 style slender ; stigma 2-lobed, globose below the apex. — South Florida. — 

 Leaves \j- 2' long. Corolla 3" long. Drupe 4" long, 1-seeded. 



Order 103. ASCI.EPIADACE^E. (Milkweed Family.) 



Erect or twining herbs or shrubs, with milky juice, entire commonly 

 opposite leaves without stipules, and umbellate or cymose flowers. — Ca- 

 lyx 5-parted, persistent. Corolla 5-parted, mostly valvate in the bud, 

 hypogynous, deciduous. Stamens 5, inserted on the base of the corolla, 

 the filaments united in a tube (gynosteyiwn) which encloses the ovaries, 

 and bears appendages of various forms, which are collectively termed the 

 stamineal crown. Anthers erect, 2-4-celled, expanding above into a thin 

 membrane. Pollen united in flattened waxy pear-shaped masses, which 

 are equal in number to the cells of the anthers, and fixed to the five an- 

 gular processes of the stigma by a slender stalk, pendulous or horizontal. 

 Styles 2, the thick and fleshy stigma common to both. Fruit a follicle. 

 Seeds anatropous, imbricated on the thick and at length free placenta, 

 and commonly bearing at the hilum a tuft of hairs (coma). Einbryo 

 straight in thin albumen. Cotyledons leafy. 



Synopsis. 



Tribe I. ASCLEPIADE.E. —Pollen-masses 10, fixed by pairs to thecteft processes of 

 the flat or conical stigma, pendulous. 



# Stamineal crown single. 5-leaved. 



•*- Lobes of the corolla reflexcd or spreading. 

 1. ASPLEPIAS. Leaves of the crown enclosing a horn-like appendage. 

 .2. ACERATE3. Leaves of the crown without appendages. 



■t- +- Lobes of the corolla erect. 

 3. PODOSTIGMA. Stigma long-pedicel led. Corolla smooth wavy. Stem erect. 

 4 MBTASTELMA. Stigma sessile or pedicelled. Corolla downy within. Stems twining. 



* # Stamineal crown single, 5-lobed. 



6 BEOTERA. Stigma conical. Crown deeply 5-parted. 



6. CYNOCTONUM. Stigma flat. Crown crenately 5 lobed. 



♦ * * Stamineal crown double. 



7 SAUCO=TEMMA. Outer crown annular; the inner one 5-leaved. 



Tribe II. GOXOLOBEiE. — Pollen-masses 10, fixed by pairs at the angles of the 

 depressed stigma, horizontal. 

 8. GONOLOBU3. Crown simple, annular. Stemg twining. Leaves cordate. 



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