INDIAN HEMP 



Any one picking a flowering branch and investi- 

 gating will be very likely to find an insect caught, 

 sometimes by a single leg, sometimes by proboscis, but 

 in every case doomed to die. 



INDIAN HEMP 



Apdcynum cannabrium 



Perennial. Native. Roadsides, fence corners, and 

 thickets, in sandy or gravelly soils; chiefly near streams, 

 exceedingly variable. Across the continent from Anti- 

 costi to British Columbia, southward to Florida and 

 Texas. August-October. 



Root. — Deep, vertical, branching. 



Stem. — Three to six feet high, branching and leafy, 

 branches ascending; juice milky and sticky. 



Leaves. — Opposite, oblong, lanceolate-oblong, or ovate- 

 oblong, two and a half to three inches long, smooth 

 above, roughish beneath; midvein and veinlets whitish, 

 sessile, or short-petioled. Margin entire, apex with a 

 little sharp point. 



Flowers. — Small, greenish white, erect in terminal and 

 axillary clusters. 



Calyx. — Five-parted; segments acute. 



Corolla. — Tubular, five-pointed, greenish white, an 

 eighth of an inch or more across; minute triangular 

 appendages at the base alternate with the stamens. 



Stamens. — Five, inserted on the base of the corolla; 

 anthers sagittate, grown together around the stigma 

 and slightly adherent to it. 



Pistil. — Ovary of two carpels; stigma obtuse, obscurely 

 two-lobed. 



Fruit. — Follicles five to six inches long, slender, terete, 

 opening on one side only, in pairs. Seeds many, small, 

 the apex tipped with a long coma. 



I5S 



