870 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



SOME OF THE CLOSE RELATIVES OF THE 

 MILKWEEDS ARE CLIMBING VINES, 

 GROWING IN WET PLACES. THIS ONE, 

 Gonolobus laevis, BELONGS RIGHT IN THAT 

 FAMILY 



Fig 3 — Angle-pod is the common name for tliis 

 vine, the seeds of wliich are tufted as we find 

 them in the true milkweeds (Asclc^ias). 



SOME INTERESTING PLANTS ARE FOUND 

 IN THE CROWFOOT FAMILY (Raniincula- 

 ceac). AND THE THIMBLEWEED OR TALL 

 ANEMONE IS ONE OF THEM {Anemone 

 'ttrginiaiia) 



Fig 5 — When this species of Thimble-weed goes 

 to seed, its fruit-heads remind one of common, 

 medium seized thimbles, as they are represented 

 here in this cut. 



ure 3. In dense thickets, along the banks 

 of sluggish rivers and canals, it flourishes 

 from Pennsylvania, westward to Illinois, 

 and southward through Kansas to the 

 (iulf. Although a "perennial twining 

 herb, smooth, with opposite, heart-ovate 

 and pointed, long-petioled leaves, with 

 small flowers in raceme-like clusters on 

 slender axillary peduncles" (Gray), it 

 nevertheless has a seed-pod almost ex- 

 actly like the one borne in the autumn 

 on some of our species of milkweeds. 

 When we open one of these pods, we 

 find the tufted seeds, arranged almost 

 exactly as they are in the pods of some of 

 the slender-pod Asclepias of the Milk- 

 weed family (Asclepiadaceae). The vine 

 has been called Angle-pod from its an- 

 gled fruit, the name being derived from 

 two Greek words meaning an angle and 

 a pod. 



The vine and its pod is of a specimen 

 found growing on the banks of the 

 Georgetown Canal, a little more than a 

 mile west of Washington. Some day we 

 will show what the flowers look like, 

 when a clearer idea may be obtained of 

 their milkweed affinities. 



Some plants are especially beautiful 

 and attractive when they go to seed, and 

 they may retain this state throughout the 

 entire winter. Among these we have in 

 mind the common Daisy Fleabane (Fig. 

 4), an abundant roadside species in the 

 region where it flourishes. These Flea- 

 banes are closely related to the Asters 

 of the Compositae, and the group con- 

 tains such well-known flowering plants as 

 the Horseweed (£. canadensis) and 

 Robin's Plantain (£. pulchellus). The 

 name is composed of two Greek words 

 meaning "spring" and "an old man," re- 

 ferring to the hairiness of the stems 

 when the plants are in flower, — that is, 

 iiairy in the spring time, — one of the 

 Scnccio names. Gray also gives 

 liuerigeron. 



Referring to two of the Fleabanes, a 

 popular writer at hand says: "That 

 either of these plants, or the pinkish, 

 small-flowered, strong-scented Salt-marsh 

 Fleabane {Pulchea camphorata), drive 

 away fleas, is believed only by those who 

 have not used them dried, reduced to 

 powder, and sprinkled in kennels, from 

 which, however, they have been known 

 to drive away dogs." 



In these February days, in the woods 

 and fields from Maine to South Carolina, 



WHEN THE DAISY FLEABANE GOES TO 

 SEED, ITS TUFTED FRUIT— FLUFFY BALLS 

 OF A RICH TAX— CONSTITUTE ONE OF 

 THE ATTRACTIONS OF THE LANES AND 

 ROADSIDES 



Fig. 4 — Erigeron attnttits of the great Composite 

 family (Compositae), may be easily recognized 

 by its hairy stem and the little leaf in the 

 angle of its branching stems. 



ALONG STREAMS AND BORDERS OF 

 SWAMPS AND MARSHES IN NOVEMBER. 

 THE WELL-KNOWN SHRUB WE CALL 

 SPECKLED OR HOARY ALDER APPEARS 

 AS SHOWN IN THIS CUT 



Fig, 6 — Alders belong to the Birch family 

 {Betulaccae)t the species here shown being the 

 Alnus incana of the botanies. 



