Lake Maxinkuckee, Physical and Biological Survey 395 



does not generally become a nuisance as it confines itself pretty 

 well to waste places. There is a good deal on the north side of 

 the lake, north of Edwards' south fence, near the mouth of Aubee- 

 naubee Creek and southward. Rather abundant on the railroad em- 

 bankment north of the lake ; patches near Scovell's and in front of 

 the Barnes cottage. 



In flower, one of the least attractive of the milkweeds. Some 

 plants, which bear immense numbers of flowers, and large dense 

 heads of blossoms in all stages of development, offer a pleasing 

 view when seen at a distance, but the flowers are of a neutral gray- 

 purple, soon turning yellowish, and of a peculiar rank odor. Plants 

 along the railroad between the lakes bore astonishingly large crops 

 of flowers. 



This milkweed, like the others, has a complicated mechanical 

 device for effecting fertilization; the pollen masses are borne in 

 pockets and united in pairs by a hair-like connective, and it ap- 

 pears to be necessary for some insect to trip on the hairs to pull out 

 the pollen masses in order to secure fertilization. This plant seems 

 to be a sort of drug shop among the insects; one frequently finds 

 around it flies and bees which have been entangled and perhaps 

 stupefied by the juices of the plant. It is also frequented by red 

 long-horn beetles of a carnivorous nature, which attack and decapi- 

 tate flies ; they may haunt the plant for the insects which visit it. 

 The milkweed butterfly is another well known visitor. 



The mechanism by which fertilization is brought about seems 

 to be a case of over-inventiveness. A remarkably small number of 

 flowers produce any fruit, and a hundred flowers will rarely pro- 

 duce as many as a half-dozen pods. Some of the plants along the 

 railroad were exceptionally fruitful. 



In autumn, when the pods open, many of the seeds of the lower 

 part of the pod escape soon but many toward the tip of the pods 

 are held fast in some manner by the tips of the bristles, so that they 

 project, waving and fluttering in every breeze and loosening 

 one by one, making a dense clump of these plants in late autumn 

 one of the most picturesque bits of scenery to be encountered. 



The silky bark or fiber of this plant is one of the materials 

 which the oriole uses to build its nest. 



618. WHORLED MILKWEED 



ASCLEPIAS VERTICILLATA L. 



Not common. Occasional plants are found on banks along the 

 railroad; more were found along the Assembly grounds hill than 



