ON THE ASCLEPIADEiE. 207
Massa pollinis basi affixse, altero margine cartilagineo- pellucido.
Stigma muticum.
Folliculi subcylindracei, leeves. Semina comosa.
Habitus. Plant a carnosee, aphylke, angulatse, sa?pe r~n tuberculatae. Mores, utplurimum speciosi, odore nauseoso, stercorario.
Patria. Africa Australis, prsesertim in planitiis desertis, argillaceis, Karroo nuncupatis.
Obs. The essential character of this extensive and sin- gular genus, consists, according to Linnaeus and all subse- quent 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 capable of further subdivision ; and I have little doubt, that when the species become better known, such a subdivision will be found expedient, and probably from characters like the following, by which, in the mean time, it may be disposed into very natural sections.
I. Corona exterior hphylla^foliolis indivisis.
Stapelia hirsuta, Linn, sororia, Mass. vetula, Mass. ambigua, Mass. asterias, Mass. glandulifera, Mass. stellaris, Jacq. inecl.
II. Corona exterior hpartita, laciniis bifidis.
Stapelia revoluta, Mass. pedunculata, Mass. verru- [25 cosa, Mass. mixta, Mass. variegata, Linn, lepida, Jacq. ined.
III. Corona exterior Ipfiylla, indivisa vel ciliato-multifida.
Stapelia articulata, Hort. Kern, et Mass. geminata, Mass., aliaeque ineditae, in Museo Banksiano, spir. vin. asservata?.
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