WILD FLOWERS pink 



usually smooth stalk is slender and branched. It is 

 leafy to the top, and grows from two to four feet high. 

 The leaves are long lance-shaped, tapered at the apex 

 and narrowed toward the base, where they are some- 

 times slightly heart-shaped. The veins are ascending 

 and not spreading as in the preceding species. Neither 

 has this plant an abundance of milky juice. The 

 leaves grow in alternating pairs, and are set on short 

 stout stems. The numerous flowers are arranged in 

 several rather small, loose terminal and flat-topped 

 clusters. They are not large and the corolla is red 

 or rose-purple, rarely white. The lobes are oblong, and 

 the pink or purplish hoods are shorter than the enclosed, 

 incurved horns. The stems of the slender pods are 

 not crooked. 



The Hairy Milkweed, A . pulchra, is a more northern 

 species with shorter stemmed, broader leaves, and 

 lighter coloured flowers. It is more or less hairy, 

 and the stalk is stout. It ranges from Maine to 

 Minnesota and south to Georgia. 



COMMON MILKWEED. SILKWEED 



Asclepias syriaca. Milkweed Family. 



This is undoubtedly the most familiar of the Milk- 

 weeds. It is found everywhere in fields and along wood 

 and roadsides during June, July, and August, from 

 New Brunswick and Saskatchewan to North Carolina 

 and Kansas. Its presence is said to be an indication 

 of rich rather than poor soil. The sticky, milky juice 

 of this species is less copious than that of the Purple 



79 



