ASCITES

(Gr.u<r»h.) Dropsy of the belly. ASCLEPIADACEiE. (Asclepias, one qf the genera.) Monopetalous exogenous plants, with bifollicular fruit, the stamens adhering to the stigma, which is large and pentagonal, and an acrid milk in their stems. They are exceedingly different in appearance, some being trees with showy flowers, others obscure twiners with very inconspicuous herbaceous corollas, others herbaceous plants with clusters of gaily coloured flowers, and others leafle decumbent shrubs with angular stems and brown putrescent flowers. The latter are stapelias. Hoya, with its delicate waxen flowers running with honey, is a genus of the order; and another is the curious climbing water carrier called dischidia, which mounts to the tops of lofty trees with its fleshy bags filled with a constant supply of Water. Some of the species are valuable for the toughne of the fibre extracted from their stems. The milky secretion of these plants contains caoutchouc, or Indian rubber; it is of an emetic nature, and in some cases it is dangerous. Asclepias tuberosa, the butterfly weed of North America, is the handsomest of the hardy species. This order only exists in temperate climates, and is most copious in the tropics. [s. 107]