316 ASCLEPIADACEAE (MILKWEED FAMILY) 



the disk-like stigma. The fruits are twin follicles, three to five 

 inches long, gray-hairy, pointed at both ends, their pedicels so 

 bent as to hold them nearly erect. Seeds flat, margined, brown, 

 bearing a coma or tuft of long, silky hairs. (Fig. 220.) 



Means of control 



Persistently deprive the tuberous roots of green growth above 

 ground and they will at length wither and die. Begin cutting 

 before the first flowers mature, and repeat as often as new shoots 

 put forth. Dry salt applied to the shorn surfaces will check new 

 growth. 



SWAMP MILKWEED 

 Asclepias incarnata, L. 



Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 



Time of bloom: July to September. 



Seed-time: Late August to October. 



Range: New Brunswick to the Northwest Territory, southward to 



Tennessee, Louisiana, and Kansas. 

 Habitat : Wet ground ; low meadows, swamps, and along ditches. 



In a report on "Fiber Investigations" made by the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, it is stated that this plant 

 yields a tough fiber, finer than that of hemp, soft, glossy, and 

 possessed of great strength. Binder twine made of it stood a 

 breaking test of ninety-five to a hundred and twenty-five pounds. 

 It is a pity that the plant is not utilised so as to make valuable 

 many a profitless swamp or marsh. Its hard, knotty roots are used 

 in medicine, and are worth three or four cents a pound when col- 

 lected in late autumn and carefully dried. 



Stems slender, two to five feet tall, round, smooth, often reddish, 

 sometimes simple but usually branching above, leafy to the sum- 

 mit. Leaves opposite, oblong-lance-shaped, smooth, long-pointed, 

 usually obtuse at base, with rather short petioles. Flowers rosy 

 purple, in flattened umbels, the pedicels finely hairy ; the hoods 

 of the crown erect and slim, the pointed horns within being as 

 sharp as needles and longer than the hoods. Follicles slender, 

 pointed at both ends, and held erect. 



