APOCYNACE^— DOGBANE FAMILY 



SPREADING DOGBANE. HONEY-BLOOM. 

 BITTERROOT 



Apdcynum androsamifdlium 



From Greek apo, from, and kuns^ dog — the ancient name. 



Perennial. Native. Leafy and branching plant, ex- 

 tremely graceful and attractive, one to four feet high, 

 bearing small, white and pink, bell-shaped flowers; found 

 along roadsides, in fields, and the borders of thickets. 

 Nova Scotia to the Northwest Territory, and south 

 to Georgia. July-August. State flower of Montana. 

 Juices milky and acrid. 



Rootstock. — Horizontal, creeping. 



Stem. — One to four feet high, smooth, often stained 

 on one side with red, divergently branching. 



Leaves. — Opposite, petioled, ovate, entire, acute at 

 apex. 



Flowers. — Bell-shaped, size of bells of Lily-of-the- 

 Valley. White with pink stripes, five-lobed, lobes re- 

 curving; borne in loose, spreading, terminal or axillary 

 clusters. 



Calyx. — Five-parted, lobes acute. 



Corolla. — Bell-shaped, five-lobed, bearing five tri- 

 angular appendages below the throat opposite the lobes, 

 white, striped with pink. 



Stamens. — Five, inserted at the base of the corolla; 

 filaments flat, shorter than the arrow-shaped anthers 

 which converge around the stigma and are slightly ad- 

 herent to it. 



152 



