Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 34 (1896).djvu/340

 814 REVISION OF EXTRA- TROPICAL SOUTH AFRICAN ASCLEPIADACE^. glossum E. Mey. and Asclepias L. ; the former being a purely African genus with about one hundred species, of which seventy are South African, and these, with the exception of only eight species, all south-eastern. The genus Asclepias has representatives almost over the whole world, but its species nowhere reach such splendour as in the South African Pachycarpi, some of which, e.g. A. grandi- Jiora L.f., A. linearis Schltr., A. insignis Schltr., A. Schinziana Schltr., and A. vexillata Schltr., well deserve to be introduced into European gardens. In conclusion, I have to treat a few purely systematic points. I have united the two genera Ectadiojms Bth. and Cryptolepis R. Br., there being no distinctive characters whatever to keep them sepa- rated. C. ohtusa N. E. Br. is, for instance, very nearly allied to C. transvaalensis Schltr., which in floral characters cannot be generically separated from the type of Bentham's genus Ectadiopsis. I fear, too, that Currona Planch, may have to go to Cryptolepis, as it is closely allied to C. Monteiroce Oliv., through which species it is well connected with the typical Cryptolepids. However, the latter is a question which hardly concerns us at present, since Curroria decidua Planch., the only species of the genus, has not been found as yet within our boundary. As my views respecting Hcemax E. Mey. and Gomphocarpus E. Br. have been already pub- lished, it is needless to repeat them. In the following list the genera are enumerated according to Prof. Schumann's work on the Asclepiadacece in Engler & Prantl's NatilrHche PJianzenfamilien. < Small alterations have been made where they were deemed necessary, especially in cases where my own genera were concerned. Another little modification I have undertaken in shifting the Ceropeginia to the end of the Tylophorea, as through the presence of the hyaline anther- appendage the Marsdeniacea seem to approach more towards the Asclepiadea. Suborder I. — PERiPLocoiDEiE. I. Chlorocodon Hk. f. in Bot. Mag. t. 5898 (1871) ; Bth. & Hk. f. Gen. PI. ii. 745 (1876). 1. C. WniTEiHk.f. I.e. Natal. II. Taccazea Dene, in DC. Prodr. viii. 492 (1844). 1. T. Welwitschii Baill. in Bull. Soc. Bot. Par. ii. (1891) 897. Zululand. III. Chlorocyathus Oliv. in Ic. PI. t. 1557 (1887). 1. C. MoNTEiRo-E Oliv. I.e. Delagoa Bay. IV. EcTADiuM E. Mey. Com. PI. Afr. Austr. 188 (1837); Dene, in DC. Prodr. viii. 500 (1844); Bth. & Hk. f. Gen. PI. ii. 742. 1. E. viRGATUM E. Mey. l.e. Dene. I.e. Little Namaqualand.