MILKWEED FAMILY 



109 



Locs. — Sierra Nevada f oothUls : Clements, ne. San Joaquin Co., Jepson 1823c ; Knights Ferrj, 

 Jepson 8338; Ahwahnee, Mariposa Co., Jepson 12,824; Friant, Fresno Co., Jepson. San Joaquin 

 Valley: betw. Mossdale and Atlanta, Jepson 14,541 ; Atwater, Merced Co., Jepson 12,755. South 

 Coast Ranges: Orestimba Canon, w. Stanislaus Co., Hoover 2604; San Miguel, E. P. Unangst ; 

 Templeton, Davy 7567. Santa Barbara Co. : Carpinteria, ace. Peirson. The citation of San Diego 

 Co. by Gray (Sjti. F1. 2:94) and of Alameda and San Francisco Cos. by Greene (Man. Reg. S. F. 

 Bay 242) are all probably errors. In the Mohave Desert and in Inyo Co. the species passes into 

 the var. pawshu Jepson : leaves narrower, very acuminate, glabrate ; corolla purple ; teeth be- 

 neath the cloven glands much reduced. — Desert flats or slopes : north base of the San Bernardino 

 Mts. (Cajon Pass; Rabbit Sprs., Hall ^- Chandler) ; Inyo Co. (Skinner Canon, S. TV. Austin 627). 



Refs. — AsciiEPlAS VESTITA H. & A., Bot. Beech. 363 (1840), type from Cal., Douglas ; Jepson, 

 Fl. W. Mid. Cal. 383 (1901), ed. 2, 323 (1911), Man. 772 (1925). Var. pamshii Jepson, Man. 772, 

 fig. 759 (1925), type loc. Cajon Pass, Jepson 6116. 



AscLEPiAS CBTPTOCEKAS Wats., Bot. King 283, pi. 28, figs. 1-4 (1871), type loc. West Hum- 

 boldt Mts., near Humboldt Lake, Nev., Watson 961. Stems decumbent, 9 to 15 inches long; herb- 

 age glabrous ; leaf -blades 3 or 4 pairs, round-ovate, 

 apiculate, 1% to 2% inches long; petioles 1 to 2 lines 

 long; umbels 1 to 3, 6 to 10-flowered, the lateral ones 

 sessile, the terminal peduncled ; flowers 8 to 11 lines 

 long ; corolla greenish-yellow ; hoods equaling the an- 

 ther-column, flesh-color, saccate-ovate, cleft at apes as 

 far back as the dorsal angle, the 2 lobes ending in ab- 

 ruptly acute points ; horns included, slender, united to 

 the back of the hood, only the upper forward-curving 

 portion free; follicles ovate, shortly attenuate, 1^/^ to 

 2% inches long. — Sandy hUlsides, western Nevada, 4000 

 to 7000 feet: Mt. Montgomery sta.. Mineral Co., Shoch- 

 ley 362, and Lawtons Sprs., near Verdi, Washoe Co., 

 Sonne, stations within 4 to 8 miles of the California 

 line. Idaho to Utah. May-June. 



2. A. eriocarpaBenth. Indian Milkweed. 

 (Pig. 353.) Stem 11/2 to 3 feet liig-li, more or 

 less sharply angled below; herbage hoary- 

 tomentose, the hairs short, not cobwebby, in age 

 more or less deciduous; some of the leaves in 

 whorls of 3 to 5, the blades of all broadly ob- 

 long with truncate or subcordate (or rarely 

 rounded) base, rounded or acute (rarelj^ acu- 

 minate) at apex, 4 to 7 (or 9) inches long; peti- 

 oles very short (1 to 3 lines long) ; umbels few or 

 several, mostly corymbose-clustered toward the 

 summit, on peduncles equaling or rather longer 

 than the pedicels ; flowers 3I/2 lines long; corolla 

 creamy- white ; hoods pink or purplish tinged, 

 shorter than the stamen-column, roundish, 

 truncatish at top, as if closed, but with a nar- 

 row slit which often extends a short distance down the back; horn broad-based, 

 attached behind by its entire base to the hood, at apex acute or sickle-shaped, pro- 

 jecting forward though but little protruded from between the acute teeth of the 

 hood; corolla and hoods soon changing to buckskin color; follicles oblong, 2^2 to 

 31/2 inches long, abruptly attenuate at the curved apex. 



Dry barren valleys or foothills, or desert washes, 100 to 2000 feet, or up to 5500 

 feet southward: Sierra Nevada foothills from Shasta Co. to Tulare Co.; Teha- 

 chapi Mts.; Sacramento Valley; Coa.st Ranges from Mendocino Co. to Monterey 

 Co.; southward to Southern California. Lower California. July- Aug. 



Field note. — The bast fibres were used by the Indians on the Kaweah River for making ropes, 

 strings for bows, and broad "no-end" bands for carrying over the head the squaw burden-basket. 

 The women of the white settlers use the silky coma of the seeds as a sort of floss for scent-bags; 

 it is much superior to cotton. The herbage is a dangerous poison to sheep. 



Fig. 353. ASCLEPIAS ERIOCAEPA 



Benth. a, flowering branchlet, X %; 

 b, fl., XI; c, hood, X 3 ; d, long. sect, 

 of hood showing horn, X 3 ; e, follicle, 



