243 
A CURIOUS VARIATION IN THE COMMON MILKWEED. 
C. A. Lupwic, Clemson College. 
During the first half of August, 1917, while spending a few weeks at 
home, I found a variant milkweed, Asclepias syriaca L., which was so 
unusual that it was removed to the back yard of my parents’ home for 
further observation. During the next summer, 1918, two other similar 
plants were discovered by my mother and transferred to the yard by my 
father. These three plants and some seedlings from the first of the 
three are now growing there. I have not seen them during the growing 
season since 1917'; but as there seems to be no prospect of my being in a 
position to investigate their behavior soon, it appears to be worth while at. 
this time to note their occurrence, with such notes as the very imperfect 
observations warrant. 
The first plant was discovered along the village street about a hundred 
yards north of the Methodist church in the village of Blooming Grove, 
Franklin County. Indiana. The distinguishing feature of the plant was 
the peculiar irregularity of most of the leaf margins, with an accompanying 
narrowing of the leaves. Many leaves consisted of but-little more than the 
midrib. They had much the appearance of having been partially eaten by 
chickens, and it was only a careful examination that showed another cause 
to be responsible. 
The plant contained a few fruits and it seemed desirable to save seed and 
determine whether or not the progeny would show the same character, but 
before the seed were ripe the plant was cut off by some workman engaged 
in mowing weeds. Howeyer, one stem with the fruits was recovered and 
placed in water. By this means a number of viable seeds was secured. 
The other stems were recovered for a herbarium specimen, and the plant 
itself was transplanted to the back yard. 
In 1918 the peculiar leaf characteristic was largely absent. At best it 
was represented by no more than a slight narrowing, since my mother 
wrote me that I must have obtained the wrong plant the summer before, 
as the leaves were normal. Furthermore, as noted above, she found two 
more abnormal plants. These were transplanted the same season near the 
first one. All three of these plants have had the abnormal leaves during 
the seasons of 1919 and 1920. The first one also produced seed in 1920. 
Figs. 1 and 2 show the first plant as it appeared in the summer of 1919. 
Fig. 8 shows Nos. 2 and 3 as they appeared at the same time. Figs. 4-6 
show tracings of some of the leaves of No. 1, made from the herbarium spe- 
cimen already mentioned. These show clearly the extreme narrowing of 
many of the leaves and the irregularities of the margins. 
On April 18, 1918. one hundred four of the immature seeds secured the 
autumn before were planted in a shallow box. A number of seedlings were 
secured from them and set out a short distance from the mother plant. 
Of these. seedlings about a dozen are still living. None of them shows the 
leaf character so evident in the parent. The leaves may possibly show a 
1. am indebted to my mother, Mrs. A. C. Ludwig, for the observations made since 
1917, and for the photographs reproduced with this paper. 
