NATIVE WILD FLOWERS 



The silken beard of the seed, though so bright and beauti- 

 ful, is too short and brittle for spinning; still, as a felting 

 material, or for paper manufacture, it might prove of value, 

 for even the pod might be employed. A good fibre is found 

 in all the tall Milkweeds, and also in the Apocynums or 

 Dogbanes, where the thread is still finer. All these plants 

 are remarkable for the bitter viscid milky juices with which 

 they abound. 



We know nothing in medicine experimentally of this 

 tribe of native plants, but I believe they are supposed to 

 contain poisonous properties of a narcotic nature, as is the 

 case with most vegetables containing acrid milky juices.* 



It would add greatly to the value of botanical books if a 

 few words as to the poisonous character of native plants 

 were inserted. 



WILLOW-HERB Epilobium angustifolium ( L. ) . 



This handsome, showy plant, w r ith its tall wand-like 

 stem and abundant blossoms of reddish lilac, adorns old 

 neglected fallow-lands that have been run over by bush 

 fires, and open swampy spots, where it covers the unsightly 

 ground with its bright colors and drooping stems, which are 

 often borne down by the weight of their blossoms and fair 

 buds. It often shares these waste places with the White 

 Everlasting (Antennaria margaritacea) , Wild Ked Rasp- 

 berry, Blackberry, and the Fireweed, with a variety of 

 smaller plants that take possession of the virgin soil, there 

 to perfect their flowers and fruit, while at the same time 

 their abundant foliage serves to cover the confusion caused 

 by charred and blackened trunks and branches of prostrate 



* It is supposed to cure the bite of a rattlesnake, and it is strange that it always 

 grows in abundance where there are rattlesnakes. An old saying that an antidote is 

 always near a poison may be true. The milk is also a cure for warts. A.D.C. 



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