WEEDS OF MAINE. 271 



to three inches long, opposite ovate. Flowers pale rose-color, open bell-shaped, very 

 numerous. 



A common native plant, growing along the borders of fields and 

 thickets. The juice is thick and pure white. This plant, as 

 expressed in the common name, spreads very rapidly when not 

 checked. It should be vigilently watched, and thoroughly extir- 

 pated if possible. Both the species above described, and A. can- 

 nabinum — a plant growing along the banks of rivers and lakes — 

 are well known in medicine. 



Order 21. MILKWEEDS — Asclepidace^. Chiefly a tropical 

 family, of about nine hundred and ten species, noticeable for their 

 singular flowers. Many species are useful in medicine. The milky 

 juice has a bitter acrid taste, and contains caoutchouc. The fibre 

 of the inner bark is long, fine, and very strong. 



90. Common Milkweed — Silkweed — Wild Cotton — Asclepias Comuti. Roots much 

 branched, perennial, long and fleshy. Stem two to three feet high, stout, leafy. Leaves 

 four to eight inches long, and two to three inches wide, oval, on short stalks. Flowers 

 greenish purple, in large globular umbels fuur to five inches in diameter. Pods large 

 (three to five inches long), opening by a longitudinal slit. Seeds flat, furnished with a 

 long tuft of silky hairs. 



A native plant, often j^lentiful, and exceedingly troublesome. 

 When the stems are cut or broken an abundance of thick milky 

 juice exudes from the wound, whence the common name of Milk- 

 weed. The plant is often called silk-weed, on account of the copious 

 hairs attached to the seeds. By means of these hairs the seeds 

 are wafted by the winds to a great distance. Owing to the deep 

 running roots, which are very tenacious of life, the milkweed is 

 quite as diflScult to extirpate as the Canada Thistle. To efi'ect its 

 thorough destruction, pull or cut up every plant as soon as it ap- 

 pears above ground, thus allowing it no chance to breathe through 

 its lungs, the leaves. (See page 263.) 



DIVISION III. Plants destitute of petals or corolla — 

 Apetalous Exogens. 



Order 28. P0KEW0RT3— Phytolaccace^. A small order of 

 twenty genera, pretty generally distributed throughout the world. 

 Their properties are either purgative or emetic. 



91. Common Pokb or Scoke — Garget — Pigeon Bbrkt — Phytolacca decandra. Root 

 very large, perennial. Stem smooth, four to eight feet high, filled with a large pith, 

 deep purple when mature. Leaves about five inches long, oval. Flowers greenish white. 



