106 



THE INDIANA WEED BOOK. 



Common in dry or sandy soil, along railways, roadsides and in 

 neglected fields June-Sept. One of the most handsome of our 

 wild flowers, yet having a tendency to spread and crowd out more 

 valuable plants. Remedies: grubbing or repeated cutting. Its 

 bright orange hoods are very attractive to butterflies, especially 

 the smaller blue ones known as " hair-streaks" and "coppers." 

 Scores of these may sometimes be seen flitting about a bunch of 

 the flowers. The root of the butterfly-weed is an officinal remedy 

 for colds, bronchitis, pleurisy and pneumonia, the dose being from 

 20 to 40 grains of the powdered root, or a teacupful of the de- 

 coction made with half an ounce of root to a pint of water, taken 

 several times a day. When properly dried it brings 5 to 6 cents 

 a pound. 



69. ASCLEPIAS INCARNATA L. Swamp Milkweed. (P. N. 3.) 



Stem slender, glabrous, branched above, 2-5 feet high, leafy to the 



top; leaves opposite, lanceolate or oblong, pointed, 3-6 inches long, 1 inch 



wide. Flowers small, flesh colored, red- 

 dish or rose-purple, in numerous umbels, 

 the hoods shorter than the slender needle- 

 pointed horns. Pods erect, slender, 2-3i 

 inches long. Seeds brown, flat, broadly 

 winged and with the usual tuft of hairs. 

 (Fig. 71.) 



Very common in marshes, ditches, 

 low wet pastures and borders of lakes 

 and ponds. July-Sept. The fibre of 

 the stem is tough, finer than that of 

 hemp, soft and glossy, and possesses 

 greater strength than the majority of 

 bast fibres of wild growth. It can be 

 used for all purposes to which hemp 

 may be applied. Binder twine made 

 from it has stood a breaking test of 

 95 to 125 pounds. Since the plant 

 grows best on lands subject to over- 

 flow or too wet to be cultivated for 

 grain, it might, with the proper attention, prove as valuable a fibre- 

 producing plant* as hemp and so bring in returns from otherwise 

 waste ground. The root is also on officinal remedy for asthma, 

 catarrh, rheumatism, etc. The plant may be killed by draining and 

 grubbing or repeated mowings. 



Fig. 71. (After Dodge.) 



*Dodge. "Fibre Investigations," No. 9. 



