Asclepias. ASCLEPIADACE^E. 89 



therix by the same characters. Leaves mainly alternate or scattered. Flowers 

 proportionally large : corolla-lobes ovate, greenish. Follicles ovate or oblong and 

 acuminate, usually bearing some scattered soft-spiuulose projections, arrect on 

 recurved or sigmoid pedicels. -- Proc. Am. Acad. xii. 66. Anantherix in part, 

 Nutt. in Trans. Ain. Phil. Soc. 1. c. Acerates in part, Decaisne, 1. c. 



A. Viridis, Gray, 1. c. About a foot high, almost glabrous, very leafy to the top : leaves 

 from ovate-oblong to oblong-lanceolate, mostly obtuse, short-petioled, 3 or 4 inches long : 

 umbels few and corymbose or clustered, sometimes solitary : corolla globular-ovate in bud ; 

 the lobes a third to half inch long : hoods purplish or violet, about half the length of the 

 corolla-lobes, lower than the anther-column : wings of the anthers narrow, hardly angulate 

 above, and below less prominent than the connectives : pollinia narrow, little longer than 

 their caudicles. Asclepias viridis, Walt. Car. 107. Podostiyma? viridis, Ell. Sk. i. 327. 

 Anantherix paniculatus, Nutt. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. 1. c. A. Torreyanus, Don, Syst. iv. 146. 

 Asclepias longipetala, Scheele in Linn. xxi. 757. Acerates paniculata, Decaisne, 1. c. 521. 

 Prairies and dry barrens, S. Carolina to Texas, New Mexico, and westward of the Alle- 

 ghanies north to Illinois. 



Var. angustior, a lower form, Avith smaller and oblong-linear leaves, and rather more 

 assurgont hoods. Anantherix paniculatus, var. anyustior, Engelm. ined. Texas, Lindheimer 

 E. Hall. 



A. decumbens, Gray, I. c. Scabrous-puberulent : leaves firmer in texture, from lan- 

 ceolate to linear, tapering to the apex : iimbel solitary : corolla depressed-globular in bud, 

 4 or 5 lines long, hardly twice the length of the yellowish or dark-purplish hoods, which 

 overtop the somewhat depressed anther-column : anther-wings salient, especially at the 

 broader and strongly angulate upper portion: pollinia pyriform, short-caudicled. Anan- 

 therix decumbens, Nutt. 1. c. (& in Torr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. ii. 219, without name). A. Nttt- 

 tallianus, Don, Syst. iv. 147. Acerates decumbens, Decaisne, 1. c. Asclepias brevicornu, Scheele, 

 1. c. 756. Dry plains, Arkansas and Texas to New Mexico and Utah. Follicles always 

 smooth ? (Adjacent Mex.) 



6. ASCLfiPIAS, L. MILKWEED, SILKWEED. ('Ao-KX^Trto's, latinized 

 ^Esculapius, applied by the ancient herbalists to various plants of the present and 

 the preceding order.) Herbs, rarely woody at base (American, mainly North 

 American with one or two African) : upright or merely spreading stems from 

 deep and thickish perennial roots : leaves opposite varying to verticillate, or 

 sometimes alternate or irregularly scattered. Flowers (in summer) umbellate ; 

 the peduncles terminal and lateral, usually between the petioles. Stem often 

 marked with decurrent lines of pubescence. Follicles soft-echinate or warty in 

 two or three species, otherwise naked. Coma of the seeds often wanting in A. 

 perennis. Corolla notreflexed in A. Feayi. Benth. & Hook. Gen. ii. 754 ; Gray, 

 Proc. Am. Acad. xii. 66. 



1. Hoods sessile, broader or at least not attenuate at base; the horn or crest 

 various, but conspicuous : anther-wings broadest and usually angulate-truncate 

 and salient at base. 



* Corolla and hoods orange-color : follicles arrect on a deflexecl fruiting pedicel, naked : leaves 

 mostly irregularly alternate, seldom truly opposite : juice of stem not milky*! 



A. tuberosa, L. (BUTTERFLY-WEED, PLEURISY-ROOT.) Hirsute or roughish-pubescent, a 

 foot or two high, very leafy to the top : leaves from lanceolate-oblong to linear-lanceo- 

 late, sessile or slightly petioled : umbels several and mostly cymose at the summit of the 

 stem, short-peduncled : column short: hoods narrowly oblong, erect (2 or 3 lines long), 

 deep bright orange, much surpassing the anthers, almost as long as the purplish- or 

 slightly greenish-orange oblong corolla-lobes, nearly equalled by the filiform-subulate 

 horn : follicles cinereous-pubescent. (Dill. Elth. t. 30, f. 34.) Bot. Reg. t. 76 ; Bart. Med. 

 t. 22 ; Bigel. Med. t. 26. Dry and especially sandy soil, Canada to Florida, Texas, 

 and Arizona. 



