SUSPECTED SPECIES. 137 



DOGBANE. 



{ApocynuTTh spp.) 



Pale smooth perennials, 1 to 5 feet high, with tough fiber, opposite 

 sharp-pointed leaves, small white or rose-colored flowers in terminal 

 clusters, and pods 2 to 7 inches long. Two species of dogbane grow 

 in Montana, both flowering in similar situations from Ma}' to June. 

 Their preferred habitat is in waste places, along public highwa3^s, and 

 on banks. The two species seldom grow together. They may be 

 distinguished b}^ the rose-colored flowers of the one species and by the 

 greenish white flowers of the other. Both species are generally dis- 

 tributed across the continent. Dr. J. W. Blankinship states that 

 Apocynum androsae7nifolium L. is verj'- common on dry hillsides in 

 Montana. On June 11 the crisp, reddish brown plants of this species 

 were but 3 to 5 inches high, but they were abundantly supplied with 

 an acrid milky juice. On June 17, at lower elevations eastward, the 

 plants were seen in railroad excavations in a much more advanced 

 stage of growth. This plant, as well as A. cannaMmtm'L.^h poison- 

 ous. Both have tough stems and are not therefore enticing to stock, 

 especially since wholesome vegetation is abundant at the season when 

 the}^ are in a crisp and succulent condition. Both have, however, been 

 suspected by stockmen of being poisonous. The dried plants are not 

 so poisonous as the fresh ones. 



SHOWY FKASERA. 



{Frasepa speciosa Dougl.) 



A large, stout leafy herb 2 to 5 feet high, with a single erect stem 

 from a thick bitter root and numerous greenish white, dark-dotted 

 flowers in a long leafy cluster. The root leaves are from 6 to 10 inches 

 long, and the stem leaves are arranged in whorls of 1 to 6. The plant 

 is found in Montana on dry hillsides in the Judith Basin and on the 

 Belt, Bridger, Absaroka, Rocky, and Bitter Root mountains. The 

 general distribution is from Wj^oming to Oregon and southward to 

 New Mexico and California. 



Four plants 6 inches in height and without any sign of a flowering 

 stalk, were collected in Rocky Canyon on May 26 by Dr. J. W. Blank- 

 inship and delivered at the laborator}^ in a fresh condition on May 28. 

 Thirty-one grams were roughly torn into small pieces and rubbed up 

 vigorously in a mortar with 50 c. c. of water. The water extract was 

 lost, but the residue was allowed to soak in 50 c. c. of 50 per cent alco- 

 hol from May 29 to June 16, when the flltrate therefrom was given 

 hypodermically to a healthy young rabbit. Previous to this the solu- 

 tion had been evaporated on a water bath down to 7 c. c, most of the 

 alcohol being thus expelled. One and one-half cubic centimeters of 



