FiNK 



COMMON MILKWEED. 



Asclepias Cornuti; Milkweed Family. 



Stem. Tall, stout; downy; with a milky juice. Leaves. Generally 

 opposite or whorled ; the upper sometimes scattered ; large ; oblong ; pale ; 

 minutely downy underneath. Flowers. Dull purplish-pink ; clustered at the 

 summit and along the sides of the stem. (These flowers are too difficult to 

 be successfully analyzed by the non-botanist.) Calyx. Five-parted; the 

 divisions small and reflexed. Corolla. Deeply five-parted ; the divisions 

 reflexed ; above them a crown of five hooded nectaries, each containing an 

 incurved horn. Stamens. Five ; inserted on the base of the corolla ; united 

 with each other and enclosing the pistils. Pistils. Properly two; enclosed 

 by the stamens, surmounted by a large five-angled disk. Fruit. Two 

 pods, one of which is large and full of silky-tufted seeds, the other often 

 stunted. 



This is probably the commonest representative of this strik- 

 ing and beautiful native family. The tall, stout stems, large, 

 pale leaves, dull pink clustered flowers which appear in July, 

 and later the puffy pods filled with the silky- tufted seeds beloved 

 of imaginative children, are familiar to nearly everyone who 

 spends a portion of the year in the country. The young sprouts 

 are said to make an excellent pot-herb ; the silky -Hairs of the 

 seed-pods have been used for the stuffing of pillows and mat- 

 tresses, and can be mixed with flax or wool and woven to ad- 

 vantage ; while paper has been manufactured from the stout stalks. 



The four-leaved milkweed, A. quadrifolia, is the most deli- 

 cate member of the family, with fragrant rose-tinged flowers 

 which appear on the dry wooded hill-sides quite early in June, 

 and slender stems Vhich are usually leafless below, and with one 

 or two whorls and one or two pairs of oval, taper-pointed leaves 

 above. 



The swamp milkweed, A. incarnafa, grows commonly in 

 moist places. Its very leafy stems are two or three feet high, with 

 narrowly oblong, pointed leaves. Its intense purple-pink flowers 

 gleam from the wet meadows nearly all summer. They are 

 smaller than those of the purple milkweed, A. purpurascens, 

 which abounds in dry ground, and which may be classed among 

 the deep pink or purple flowers according to the eye of the be- 

 holder. 



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