24 ON THE ASCLEPIADEiE. 



Habitus. Plantos carnosae, aphyllae, angulatae, 

 saepe tuberculatae. Flores, utplurimuni spe- 

 ciosi, odore nauseoso, stercorario. 



Patria. Africa Australis, praesertim in planitiis 

 desertis, argillaceis, Karroo nuncupatis. 



Obs. The essential character of this extensive 

 and singular genus, consists, according to Lin- 

 naeus and all subsequent 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 capa- 

 ble of further subdivision ; and I have little 

 doubt, that when the species become better 

 known, such a subdivision will be found ex- 

 pedient, and probably from characters like the 

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

 be disposed into very natural sections* 



I. Corona exterior $phylla,foliolis indivisis. 



Stapelia hirsuta, Linn, sororia, Mass, vetula, 

 Mass. ambigua, Mass. asterias, Mass. glan- 

 dulifera, Mass. stellaris, J acq. ined. 



II. Corona exterior ^partita, laciniis bifidis. 

 Stapelia revoluta, Mass, pedunculata, Mass. 



