340 ASCLEPIADACE.^. (MILKWEED FAMILY.) 



where the stigma joins the apex of the style). Ovaries 2, tapering into very 

 short styles ; the large depressed 5-angled fleshy stigmatic disk common to the 

 two. Follicles 2, one of them often abortive, soft, ovate or lanceolate. Seeds 

 anatropous, flat, margined, bearing a tuft of long silky hairs (coma) at the hi- 

 lum, downwardly imbricated all over the large placenta, which separates from 

 the suture at maturity. Embryo large, with broad foliaceous cotyledons in 

 thin albumen. — Perennial upright herbs, with thick and deep roots ; pedun- 

 cles terminal or lateral and between the usually opposite petioles, bearing 

 simple many-flowered umbels, in summer. (The Greek name of yEsculapius, 

 to whom the genus is dedicated.) 



§ 1. Corneous anther-wings broadest and usuallj angxdate-truncate and salient 

 at base ; horn conspicuous. 



* Flowers orange-color ; leaves mostly scattered ; juice not 7nilkt/. 



1. A. tuberosa, L. (Butterfly-weed. Pleurisy-root.) Roughish- 

 hairy (1-2° high); stems erect or ascending, very leafy, branching at the 

 summit, and bearing usually numerous umbels in a terminal corymb; leaves 

 from linear to oblong-lanceolate, sessile or slightly petioled ; divisions of the 

 corolla oblong (greenish-orange) ; hoods narrowly oblong, bright orange, 

 scarcely longer than the nearly erect and slender awl-sliaped horns; pods 

 hoary, erect on deflexed pedicels. — Dry fields, common, especially southward. 

 — Var. decumbens, Pursh. Stems reclining ; leaves broader and more com- 

 monly opposite, and umbels from most of the upper axils. — Ohio to Ga., etc. 



* * Corolla bright red or purple ; follicles naked, fusiform, erect on the deflexed 



pedicels (except in n. 5) ; leaves opposite, mostly broad. 



•*- Flowers rather large ; hoods about 3" lor.g and exceeding the anthers ; leaves 



transversely veined. 



2. A. paupercula, Michx. Glabrous ; stem slender (2-4° high) ; leaves 

 elongated-lanceolate or linear (.5-10' long), tapering to both ends, slightly 

 petioled, umbels 5- \2-flowered ; divisions of the red corolla narrowly oblong; 

 the bright orange hoods broadly oblong, obtuse, much exceeding the incurved 

 horn. — AVet pine-barrens on the coast, N. J. to Fla. and Tex. 



3. A. rubra, L. Glabrous; leaves ovate or lanceolate and tapering from a 

 rounded or heart-shaped base to a very acute point, sessile or nearly so (2-6' 

 long, i-2^' wide), bright green; umbels many-flowered; divisions of the co- 

 rolla and hoods oblong4anceolate, purple-red , the horn long and slender, straight- 

 ish. — Wet pine-l)arrens, etc., N. J. and Penn. to Fla,, La., and Mo. 



4. A. purpurascens, L. (Purple M.) Stem rather slender (1-3° 

 high) ; leaves elliptical or ovale-oJjlong, the upper taper-pointed, minutely velvety- 

 downy underneath, smooth above, contracted at base into a short petiole ; pedicels 

 shorter than the peduncle, 3-4 times the length of the dark purple lanceolate- 

 ovate divisions of the corolla; hoods oblong, abruptly narrowed above; the horn 

 broadly scythe-shaped, with a narroiv and abruptly in flexed horizontal point.- — 

 Dry ground, !X. Eng. to Minn., Tenn., and southward. — Flowers 6" long. 



t- ■»- Fioivers small; hoods V^ long, equalling the anthers; veins ascending. 



5. A. incarnata, L. (Swamp Milkweed.) Smooth, or nearly so, in 

 the typical form, the stem with two downy lines above and on the branches 



