340 ASCLEPIADACE^E. (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 ^Esculapius, 

 to whom the genus is dedicated.) 



1. Corneous anther-wings broadest and usually angulate-truncate and salient 

 at base ; horn conspicuous. 



* Flowers orange-color; leaves mostly scattered ; juice not milky. 



1. A. tuberbsa, 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-shaped horns; pods 

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

 Var. DEctJMBENS, 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. 



H- Flowers rather large ; hoods about 3" long and exceeding the anthers ; leaves 

 transversely veined. 



2. A. paup^rcula, Michx. Glabrous ; stem slender (2 - 4 high) ; leaves 

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

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

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

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



3. A. rtlbra, 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, -2^' wide), bright green; umbels many-flowered; divisions of the co j 

 rolla and hoods oblong -lanceolate, purple-red ; the horn long and slender, straight" 

 ish. Wet pine-barrens, 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 ovate-oblong, 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 narrow and abruptly in flexed horizontal point. 

 Dry ground, N. Eng. to Minn., Tenn., and southward. Flowers 6" long. 



H- 4- Flowers small ; hoods \" long, equalling the anthers ; veins ascending. 



5. A. incamata, L. (SWAMP MILKWEED.) Smooth, or nearly so, in 

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



