186 ELEMENTS OF IIOTANY. 



petioled; cymes teruiinal, compact, shorter tliaii the leaves; flowers 

 on short, bracted pedicels, greenish-white, about ^ in. broad; calyx 

 lobes lanceolate, nearly as long as the tube of the corolla ; corolla 

 lobes erect ; follicles very slender, tapering, 3-4 in. long. June- 

 Auarust. Along fences and in thickets. 



IV. NERIUM. 



Shrubs ; leaves mostly verticillate in 3's ; flowers in termi- 

 nal cymes; calyx small, lobes acute; corolla salver-form, 

 convolute, the throat of the tube crowned with cleft or fim- 

 briate scales ; stamens 5, short, included, anthers tipped 

 with a hairy bristle ; ovary of 2 carpels, style short ; follicles 

 erect, seeds comose. 



N. Oleander L. Oleandeh. Stem erect, diffusely branched 

 from below, 4-10 ft. high; leaves narrowly elliptical, acute at each 

 end, thick and leathery, short-petioled ; flowers showy, in large clus- 

 ters, red or white, often double ; scales of the crown 3-4-pointed 

 unequal teeth ; follicles fusiform, 3-4 in. long. April-November. 

 Introduced from Palestine, common in cultivation and often spon- 

 taneous in the southern section. 



104. ASCLEPIADACEiE. MILKWEED FAMILY. 



Herbs, twining vines or sometimes shrubby plants, with 

 milky juice ; leaves alternate, opposite or verticillate, exstipu- 

 late,; flowers perfect, regular, in terminal and axillary cymes 

 or umbels ; calyx 5-parted, persistent, the tube short or none ; 

 corolla 5-parted, deciduous, rotate, campanulate or funnel- 

 form ; stamens 5, inserted near the base of the corolla ; fila- 

 ments united into a tube (gymnostegium) enclosing the ovary, 

 and bearing appendages which are often hood-like, and are 

 termed the stamineal crown ; anthers erect, 2-celled, the cells 

 often with a thin membranous appendage at the apex or 

 sometimes at the base ; pollen masses waxy, usually 1 in each 

 anther cell, attached in pairs and to the stigma by a connec- 

 tive stalk ; ovary of 2 carpels, styles 2, united into a single 

 fleshy stigma; fruit a many-seeded follicle, seeds usually 



