DOGBANE FAMILY 367 



petioles stout, 4-15 cm. long; scapes 15-60 cm. high, bearing a terminal simple or 1-2-forked 

 cyme; bracts lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, 5^15 mm. long; pedicels 3-10 mm. long; calyx- 

 tube conic to turbinate, 4-6 mm. long ; the lobes lanceolate, 4 mm. long ; corolla white, the tube 

 scarcely equaling the calyx-lobes, the lobes spreading, 5-6 mm. long, oblong-ovate, crisped on 

 the margin and bearing a low undulating crest along the median nerve on the upper surface; 

 capsule with the lower half adnate to the calyx-tube, the free portion narrowly conic, sphtting 

 at the apex into 2 lobes each lobe more or less 2-toothed. 



Wet places, especially sphagnum bogs, Boreal Zones; Alaska to British Columbia, Vancouver Island and 

 northwestern Washington, where it has been collected in Grays Harbor County. Type locality : m marshy moun- 

 tain pastures in Prince William's Sound." June-Aug. 



Family 123. APOCYNACEAE. 



Dogbane Family. 



Perennial herbs, vines or shrubs, or some tropical species trees, mostly with 

 an acrid milky juice. Leaves opposite, verticillate, or sometimes alternate, without 

 stipules. Flowers regular, perfect, solitary in the axils, or cymose or paniculate. 

 Calyx free from the ovary, persistent, 5-parted, the lobes imbricate in the bud. Co- 

 rolla sympetalous, lobes 5, convolute and often twisted in the bud. Stamens 5, alter- 

 nating with the corolla-lobes and inserted on the corolla-tube or -throat; anther 

 linear-oblong or sagittate. Ovary superior or the base adherent to the calyx, bicar- 

 pellate, the carpels distinct or united and forming a 1 -celled ovary with 2 parietal 

 placentae, or 2-celled; styles simple or 2-divided ; stigma simple. Fruit follicular 

 or drupaceous. Seeds often appendaged with a conspicuous coma; endosperm 

 fleshy ; embryo straight. 



A family of about 150 genera and over 1,000 species, of wide geographical distribution, but most abundant 

 in tropical regions. 



Stamens attached to the summit of the corolla-tube; anthers free from the stigma; seeds without coma. 



Leaves alternate; erect herbs; flowers cymose. 1. Amsonia. 



Leaves opposite; trailing vines; flowers solitary in the axils. 2. Vinca. 



Stamens attached to the base of the corolla-tube; anther-cells produced into an elongate appendage at base, 

 connivent around the stigma and adnate to it at the base of the pollen-sacs; seeds with a conspicuous coma. 



Corolla-tube with 5 minute appendages alternating with the stamens; the lobes convolute in bud. 



3. Apocynum. 



Corolla-tube with a minute appendage behind each stamen; the lobes not convolute in bud. 



4. Cycladenia. 



1. AMSONIA Walt. Fl. Car. 98. 1788. 



Perennial herbs, with alternate leaves, and bluish flowers in terminal thyrsoid or 

 corymbose cymes. Calyx 5-parted into narrow acuminate segments. Corolla 5-lobed, sal- 

 verform, the tube cylindric, villous within. Stamens included, inserted on the throat of 

 the corolla; anthers ovate or oblong. Disk none. Ovary of 2 carpels, connected at the 

 summit by the single filiform style; ovules in 2 rows in each carpel, numerous; stigma 

 appendaged by a reflexed membrane, apiculate with 2 distinct lobes or entire and de- 

 pressed-capitate or truncate. Fruit of 2 cylindric or somewhat torulose, several-seeded 

 follicles. Seeds cylindric or oblong, without coma. [Name in honor of Dr. Amson, a 

 Virginia physician, and friend of Clayton, who first proposed the name.] 



A genus of about 17 species, inhabiting North America and Japan. Type species, Amsonia Tabernaemontana 

 Walt. 



Plants glabrous; seeds truncate, at least at one end. !• A. brevtfoha. 



Plants villous-tomentose; seeds sharply tapering at both ends. 2. A. foment osa. 



1. Amsonia brevifolia A. Gray. Short-leaved Amsonia. Fig. 3823. 



Amsonia brevifolia A. Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad. 12: 64. 1876. 



Stems usually several from the woody base, 25-35 cm. high, simple or usually branching 

 above, the branches ascending, herbage glabrous throughout. Leaves lanceolate to ovate, acumi- 

 nate at apex, 2-4 cm. long, 0.5-20 mm. wide, rather abruptly narrowed at base to a short 

 petiole; calyx-lobes subulate, 3^ mm. long, the margins scarious ; corolla white and greenish 

 yellow within, the tube purplish without, 8-10 mm. long, constricted at the throat, the lobes 

 4-5 mm. long; follicles 3-9 cm. long, somewhat constricted between the seeds, these about 

 10 mm. long, more or less obliquely truncate at both ends. 



Dry benches and flats, Lower Sonoran Zone; Mojave Desert in Inyo and San Bernardino Counties south 

 to the northern rim of the Colorado Desert, in the Chuckwalla and Eagle Mountains, California; east to Ne- 

 vada, Utah, and northern Arizona. Type locality: "S. Utah and W. Arizona, to the border of California, Mrs. 

 Thompson, Dr. Parry, Dr. Palmer." April-June. 



