356 IfoerJbaceous plants* 



THE MILKWEED FAMILY. 



Silkweed, Asclepias. Mostly showy, sometimes coarse 

 and weedy, American plants with opposite or whorled 

 leaves and white, purple, or orange-yellow flowers. The 

 most desirable are : The butterfly weed (A. tuberosa), a 

 plant of dry hills and sandy fields with simple stems, narrow 

 oblong leaves, and large compound corymbs of bright 

 orange-colored flowers in summer. Fine for rockeries or 

 naturalized in barren soil. A. rubra, leaves ovate-lanceolate, 

 flowers umbellate, reddish purple ; on river banks or in 

 moist, sandy ground. A. incarnata, stem branching, two 

 feet high or more ; leaves lanceolate ; flowers rosy-purple, 

 umbellate, collected into a large flat corymb. A handsome 

 plant of low ground. A. quadrifolia, stem about a foot 

 high, smooth, with several whorls of ovate or ovate-lanceo- 

 late leaves, four in a whorl ; flowers of a delicate rosy-red 

 or white. A very attractive plant of rocky woods suitable 

 for similar places in the garden or park. 



THE BIRTH WORT FAMILY. 



Birthwort, Aristolochia dematitis. A bushy and orna- 

 mental foliage-plant, with deep green, cordate leaves, and 

 small, axillary, greenish-yellow flowers in summer. Height 

 about two feet. As a foliage-plant in rockeries or on the 

 margins of water. 



THE FOUR-O'CLOCK FAMILY. 



Four-o'Clock, Mirabilis Jalapa. Generally grown as 

 an annual in old gardens. A bushy, leafy, and showy plant 

 with white, yellow, rose-colored, or crimson flowers in 



