Asclrpins. ASCLEPIADACE^.. 475 



nate with tho anthers; the 10 polloii-magges, tlicreforn, hanging in pairs from the 

 fivo glands, oxtricatod from tlio colls only by tho agoncy of insects, being carried 

 away along with the glands (generally by their legs). Ovaries with short styles, 

 the tips of which readily separate from the massive common stigma (to tho under 

 side of which the pollen-tubes are directed). Follicles ovate or lanceolate. Seeds 

 numerous, flat, downwardly injbricated all over the large and soon detached pla- 

 centa ; tho upper end with a long tuft of down (coma). Embryo large, with broad 

 flat cotyledons in thin albumen. — Perennial (American) herbs; with copious milky 

 juice and tough bark, and numerous flowers in umbels, the peduncle generally 

 between the opposite leaves: involucre a whorl of small usually subulate bracts. 

 Flowering in summer. (Comparatively few species west of the Rocky Mountains, 

 very few west of tho Sierra Nevada.) 



* Hoods erect, broadening npimrd, twice the length of the stamens and stigma, the 



horn short from near its summit. 



1. A. subulata, Decaisne (?). Glabrous, pale or glaucous : branches rigid and 

 rush-like, leafless, or with a few terete subulate or filiform leaves above : umbels race- 

 mose, short-peduncled : pedicels and ovate sepals cinereous-pubescent when young: 

 lobes of the greenish-white corolla oblong-ovate, a third of an inch long : hoods a 

 little elevated on the column of united filaments, purplish, 3 or 4 lines long, undu- 

 late and somewhat 3-toothed at the apex, crested' through the middle, the crest 

 terminating near tho summit in a short and subulate nearly included horn : folli- 

 cles lancM'oliito, smooth. — •Torr. Hot. Mex. Hound. 10 1. 



Below San Dirj^o nlong tlio Lower Cnlifoniian boundary lino, P(rrrjf, CIrrrJnnd. ' I^avinos on 

 tho lower lUo Colorado, Scliolf, Cooper, Pahnr.r, Tho iiodimi'ios aio not rollrxrd : otlicrwiso tlio 

 apociniens accord with Decaisno's brief cliaractcr, taken from a plant in I'avon's collection. 



* * Hoods spj'eading, tapering upward, more than twice the length of stamens and 



stigma, the horn projecting from near its base. 



2. A. speciosa, Torr. Soft-tomentnse, or smoother when old: stem stout, 2 to 

 4 feet high, leafy to the top: leaves opposite, ovate or oblong-ovate, almost sessile, 

 acute or pointed, 4 to 6 inches long : ])eduncle longer than the numerous woolly 

 pedicels : flowers dull reddish-purple : hoods longer tiian the corolla, abruptly con- 

 tracted above the short involute base or body into the long and nearly flat lanceo- 

 late portion : column of filaments hardly any : follicles ovate-acuminate, densely soft- 

 spiny and woolly. — Ann. Lye. N. York, ii. 218. A. Donqlasii, Hook. Fl. ii. 53, 

 t. 142, h Bot. Mag. t. 4413. 



In the Sierra Nevada (Yosemite Valley, Bolander, to Pluinaa Co., Mrs. Pu.hifer Amrji, &c.) : 

 common through Oregon, and eastward to tho plains east of ^the Rocky Mountains. Hoods at 

 length half an inch long. Tods 4 inches long, resembling those* of >4. Cornnii, tho common Milk- 

 wood of tiio Atlantic Stntos. 



* * * Hoods erect or ascending, not exceeding the stamens and stigma, 



+- Ovate, obtuse, entire, comparativelg small ; the exserted horn rising from below its 

 middle : flotvers small and numerous : leaves narrow. 



3. A. fascicularis, Decaisne. Glabrous, slender, 3 to 5 feet high : leaves in 

 whorls of 3 to 5, or the lower and uppermost opiiosite, sometimes also with fas- 

 cicles in tho axils, linear and linear-lanceolate, slightly jjotinleil (2 to 5 inrhes long, 

 1 to 6 lines wide) : peduncles slender, ofton in wiiorls : pedicels and calyx com- 

 monly puberulent : flfiwers white or whitish : lobes of the corolla oblong (2 lines 

 long) : column of filaments half as long as the anthers : horns longer than the 

 hood, subnlato, and conspicuously inc\irvod over thf summit of the stigma : follicles 



