46 
61. ASCLEPIADACE-E. 
pendulous attached in pairs to two divaricate or divergent 
stalks from each stigmatic gland. Follicles spongy-coria- 
ceous; seeds comose. — Climbing or twining partially mealy- 
grey glabrescent shr. L. w. or pale beneath. FI. rather 
large, w. or rose-col., in loose subdichotomous bracteate 
few-fld. cymes. 
tt2. Gomphocarpus. Cal. 5-partite, lobes small narrow. 
Cor. o-partite rotate, tube very short or 0, lobes petaloidal 
patent or reflexed. Stam. -crown 5-leaved, leaflets com- 
presso-cucullate with a small outwardly hooked toothlet 
on each side at top. Anth. with a terminal membranous 
point. Stigma depressed fleshy 5-angular. Pollen-masses 
affixed by their attenuated tip, compresso-clavate or cultri- 
form. Follicles inflated ventricose, often clothed or echi- 
nate with flexible soft spines. Seeds comose. — Erect or 
ascending (not twining) shr. or per. herbs. FI. often 
specious, in extraaxillary or terminal many-fl. loose cymes 
or umbels. 
ttTribe I. Asclepiadece. 
tfl. Aratjja Brot. 
ttl. A. sericifera Brot. Seda or Arvore de Seda. 
St. twining ; 1. ovato-deltoidal acute or acuminate, dull w. 
beneath, the lower broader shorter and subcordate, the upper 
narrower elongate and truncate at the base ; cymes 1-4- (mostly 
2 or 3)-fld., their ped. shorter or not longer than the petioles ; 
sep. erect ovate or ovato-lanceolate, as long as the tube of cor. ; 
lobes of the latter erect plain flat (not undulate) half-ovate sub- 
obtuse. — Brot. in Linn. Tr. xii. 69, tt. 4, 5 ; Spr. Syst. i. 855; DC. 
viii. 533. Physianthus albens Mart, et Zucc. Nov. Gen. i. 53, 
t. 32 (not Don, Grab., Hook., Lindl.). — Shr. per. Mad. reg. 1, r. 
Up the Machico valley in several spots quite naturalized, as in 
the garden-hedge by the roadside at the Quinta de S. Cristovo 
quite naturalized, from 1826 till very recently ; and now at the 
Capella do Amparo up the Bib. Seco, a branch of the Machico 
valley. July, Aug. — A copiously milky climbing shr., running 
thickly over hedges, &c., to a height of 5 or 6 ft. Branches 
round woody the older sarmentose pale brown smooth, the 
younger hard gr. glabrescent flexuously twisting and twining, 
very thin or slender and mealy or velvety-whitish towards the 
ends. Petioles slender 1-2 in. long and with the ped. pedic. 
and cal. velvety whitish. L. 2-3± in. long, 1-2-1, broad, shaped 
like a pointed flat trowel or isosceles triangle, truncate or sub- 
cordate at the base ; their upper surface at first minutely and 
inconspicuously subpuberulous, then glabrescent and shining 
