MILKWEED FAMILY. Asclepladacex. 



The var. pulchra is more or less hairy, has broader, 



shorter-stalked leaves, and dull crimson or pink or even 



pink-white flowers. Common north, south to Ga. 



_ The commonest of all the Asclepias, and 



Common »_.«»'• • 



Milkweed remarkable for its cloymgly sweet, some- 



Asclepias what pendulous flower-cluster, which is 



Comuti most aesthetic in color ; it varies from pale 



Pale brown- brownish lilac to pale lavender-brown, 

 July-August and f rom chiU crimson-pink and pink-lilac 

 to yellowish (the horns particularly) and 

 brownish lavender. Gray's and Britton and Brown's 

 ' 'green- purple" is a misleading color description; 

 the authors of Wild Flowers of the Northeastern 

 States (p. 434) are quite correct in their description of 

 this flower-color and all others. The broad oblong 

 leaves and stem of the plant are very finely hairy, the 

 color is light yellow-green, and the ribs are yellowish. 

 The rough-surfaced seed-pod is filled with the silkiest of 

 white down, attached to flat yellow-brown seeds, over- 

 lapping each other like the scales of a fish. The flower- 

 clusters are borne at the junction of leaf-stem and 

 plant-stem. The flowers are mostly fertilized by bees, 

 who not infrequently lose their lives by their feet be- 

 coming inextricably entangled with the pollen masses, 

 or caught in the fissures of the corona (described fully 

 in William Hamilton Gibson's My Studio Neighbors, 

 p. 232). 3-5 feet high. Common everywhere. 

 Asclepias P a * e ma genta-purple-stained green flow- 



obtusifolia ers in a solitary terminal cluster. The ob- 

 Lilaogreen long, wavy leaves with a clasping base 

 July-August somewhat heart-shaped. Rather uncom- 

 mon northward, but frequent in the south. Found in 

 sandy soil near Burlington, Vt. 



A rather tall milkweed with large ivory 

 Milkweed or cream-white flowers, whose reflexed 



Asclepias corolla-segments are green or magenta- 



phytolaccoides tinged on the outer surface ; the flowers 



Jun^A^ult loosel y clustered and drooping. The rather 



large leaves are thin and pointed at either 



end ; the stem is slender and 3-6 feet high. One of our 



most dainty and beautiful wild flowers. Common on 



368 



