S50 ASCLEPIADACE.fi. (MILKWEED FAMILY.) 



(Echites difformis, Walt.} Damp grounds, S. E. Virginia, S. Illinois, and 

 southward. April. 



3. APOCYNUftl, Tourn. DOGBANE. INDIAN HEMP. 



Calyx 5-parted, the lobes acute. Corolla bell-shaped, 5-cieft, bearing 5 trian- 

 gular appendages in the throat opposite the lobes. Stamens 5, inserted on the 

 very base of the corolla : filaments flat, shorter than the arrow-shaped anthers, 

 which converge around the ovoid obscurely 2-lobed stigma, and are slightly ad- 

 herent to it by their inner face. Style none : stigma large, ovoid, slightly 2- 

 lobed. Fruit of 2 long and slender follicles. Seeds comose with a long tuft of 

 silky down at the apex. Perennial herbs, with upright branching stems, oppo- 

 site mucronate-pointcd leaves, a tough fibrous bark, and small and pale cymose 

 flowers on short pedicels. (An ancient name of the Dogbane, composed of 

 OTTO- from, and Kixav, a dog, to which the plant was thought to be poisonous.) 



1. A. androsaemifolium, L. (SPREADING DOGBANE.) Smooth, 

 branched above ; branches divergently forking ; leaves ovate, distinctly petloled ; 

 cymes loose, spreading, mostly longer than the leaves ; corolla (pale rose-color, J 1 

 broad) open-bell-shaped, with revolute lobes, the tube much longer than the ovate pointed 

 divisions of -the calyx. Varies, also, with the leaves downy underneath. Bor- 

 ders of thickets; common, especially northward. June, July. Pods 3' -4' 

 long, pendent. 



2. A. caimfcbimiin, L. (INDIAN HEMP.) Stem and branches up- 

 right or ascending, terminated by erect and close many-flowered cymes, which are 

 usually shorter than the leaves ; corolla (greenish-white) with nearly erect lobes, 

 the tube not longer than the lanceolate divisions of the calyx. Var. GLABERRI- 

 MUM, DC. Entirely smooth; leaves oblong or oblong-lanceolate, on short but 

 manifest petioles, obtuse or rounded, or the upper acute at both ends. Var. 

 PUBESCENS, DC. Leaves oblong, oval, or ovate, downy underneath or some- 

 times on both sides, as well as the cymes. (A. pubescens, R. 23r.) Var. HY- 

 PERICIF6LIUM. Leaves more or less heart-shaped at the base and on very short 

 petioles, commonly smooth throughout. (A. hypericifolium, Ait.) Kiver- 

 banks, &c. ; common. July, Aug. Plant 2 - 3 high, much move upright 

 than the last ; the flowers scarcely half the size. These different varieties evi- 

 dently run into one another. 



MINOR, the common PERIWINKLE, and NERIUM OLEANDER, tne 

 OLEANDER, are common cultivated plants of this family. 



ORDER 85. ASCLEPIADACE^E. (MILKWEED FAMILY.; 



Plants with milky juice, and opposite or whorled (rarely scattered) entire 

 leaves ; the follicular pods, seeds, anthers connected with the stigma, sensible 

 properties, fyc.,just as in the last family ; from which they differ in the com- 

 monly valvate corolla, and in the singular connection of the anthers with the 

 stigma, the cohesion of the pollen into wax-like or granular masses, &c., as 

 explained under the first and typical genus. 



