386 THE KINDS OF PLANTS 



2 in. long, funnel-foriu, with 4 spreading lobes, having the margins cut into 

 a fringe all around: leaves clear green, lanceolate, acute, sessile. 



G. serr^ta. Gunner. Similar to the preceding, but smaller and corolla 

 less fringed: leaves linear. 



G. Andr6w8ii, Griseb. Closed gentian. Perennial: stems simple, smooth, 

 to about 1% to 2 ft.: leaves ovate to lanceolate, with narrow base: flowers 

 in terminal, sessile clusters: corolla blue with notched folds or appendages 

 on the margin, never opening. 



XLII. ASCLEPIADACE.5:. Milkweed Family. 



Perennial herbs or shrubs, often vines, with milky juico: leaves 

 opposite or sometimes whorled, e.xstipulate: flowers generally in umbels, 

 regular and 5-parted, but very peculiar in the structure and connection 

 of stamens, stigma and pollen: hood-like appendages are borne 

 behind the anthers, forming a corona about the stigma: stamens 5 

 with very short filaments, and mostly monadelphous: the anthers press 

 against the fleshy 5-angled stigma, and the pollen coheres in waxy or 

 granular masses, one or two to each anther sac: fruit of one or two 

 follicles: seeds bearing long silk (Fig. 277). About two thousand 

 species and two hundred genera. 

 ASCLilPIAS. Milkweed. Silkweed. 



Erect perennial herbs, with mostly opposite, thick simple leaves 

 and flowers in simple umbels: calyx and corolla each with 5 lobes, bent 

 downward, leaving the crown of 5 hood-like appendages, each bearing a horn, 

 conspicuously surrounding the stamens: filaments generally united, and 

 the anthers adherent to the fleshy stigma: anther 2-celIed and each cell con- 

 taining a firm, waxy, elongated mass of pollen: adjacent pairs of the pollen 

 masses are connected and suspended from one of 5 glands resembling a pair 

 of saddle-bags. The flower is peculiarly adapted to insect pollination, the 

 pollen masses being carried on the feet of insects. 



A. tuberosa, Linn. Butterfly weed. Pleurisy root. About 2 ft., with most 

 conspicuous erect clusters of brilliant orange flowers: leaves irregularly scat- 

 tered on stems, or alternate, linear or lance-oblong, hairy, sessile: pods 

 nearly erect, finely pubescent. Dry fields and hillsides. Summer. 



A. incarnata, Linn. Swamp milkweed. Fig. 245. A handsome milk- 

 weed of wet grounds: stems leafy, 2-5 ft.: leaves lanceolate or lance-oblong, 

 acuminate, rather smooth, opposite: flowers rose-colored to white, sweet- 

 scented, in somewhat paniculate umbels: follicles erect, smooth. 



A. Cornuti, Decaisne. Common milkweed. Fig. 277. Stems 3-4 ft. high, 

 stout, very milky, usually simple, leafy: leaves large, oblong, downy beneath, 

 stiff', 4-8 in. long, opposite, short-petioled : flowers }4 in. long, greenish- 

 lavender to la ender, with strong, sweet, but unpleasant odor: pods rough 

 or warty. 



