Asdepias. ASCLEPIADACE.E. ^-r 



nate with the anthers; the 10 pollen-masses, tlierofore, hanging in pairs from the 

 live glands, extricated from the cells only by the agency of insects, being carrieil 

 away along with the glands (generally by their legs). Ovaries with short styles, 

 the tips of which readily separate from tlio massive common stigma (to the under 

 side of which the pollen-tubes are directed). Follicles ovate or lanceolate. Seeds 

 numerous, flat, downwardly imbricated all over tlie large and soon detached pla- 

 centa ; the upper end with a long tuft of down (coma). Embryo large, with broad 

 flat cotyledons in thin albumen. — Perennial (American) herbs; with copious milky 

 juice and tough bark, and numerous flowers in umbels, the peduncle generally 

 between the opposite leaves: involucre a whorl of small usually subulate bracts. 

 Flov,^ering in summer. (Comparatively few species west of the Itocky Mountains, 

 very few west of the Sierra Nevada.) 



* Hoods erect, broadening upward, twice tlie length of the stamens and stigma, the 



horn short from near its si(,mmit. 



1. A. subulata, Decaisne (?), Glabrous, pale or glaucous : branches rigid and 

 rush-like, leafless, or with a few terete subulate or filiform leaves above : umbels race- 

 mose, short-peduncled : pedicels and ovate sepals cinereous-pubescent when young : 

 lobes of the gi-eenish-white corolla oblong-ovate, a third of an inch long : hoo<ls a 

 little elevated on the column of united filaments, purplish, 3 or 4 lines long, undu- 

 late and somewhat 3-toothed at the apex, crested through the middle, the crest 

 terminating near the summit in a short and subidate nearly included horn : folli- 

 cles lanceolate, smooth. — Torr. Bot. ]\Iex. Bound. 1G4. 



Below San Diego along the Lower Californian boundary line, Parry, Cleveland. Ravines on 

 the lower Rio Colorado, Schott, Cooper, Palmer. The peduncles are not reflexed : otherwise the 

 specimens accord with Decaisne's brief character, taken from a plant in Pavou's collection. 



* * Hoods spreading, tapering upward, more than tidce the length of stamens and 



stigma, the horn projecting from near its base. 



2. A. speciosa, Torr. Soft-tomentose, or smoother Avhen old : stem stout, 2 to 

 4 feet high, leui'y to the top: leaves opposite, ovate or oblong-ovate, almost sessile, 

 acute or pointed, 4 to 6 inches long : peduncle longer than the numerous woolly 

 pedicels : flowers dull reddish-purple : hoods longer than the corolla, abruptly con- 

 tracted above the short involute base or body into the long and nearly flat lanceo- 

 late portion : column of filaments hardly any : follicles ovate-acuminate, densely soft- 

 spiny and woolly. — Ann. Lye. N. York, ii. 218, A. Douglasii, Hook. Fl. ii. 53, 

 t. 142, & Bot. Mag. t. 4413. 



In the Sierra Nevada (Yosemite Valley, Bolander, to Plumas Co., Mrs. Pulsifer Ames, &c.) : 

 common thmugli ( )ngon, and eastward to the plains east of the Rocky Jlountains. Hootls at 

 length half ;iii iiirli l.mg. Pods 4 inches long, resembling those of A. Cornuti, the coramou Milk- 

 weed of the Atlantii: States. 



* * * Hoods erect or ascending, not exceeding the stamens and stigma, 



+- Ovate, obtuse, entitle, comjyaratively small ; the exsei-ted horn rising from heloio its 

 middle : flowers small and numerous : leaves narrow. 



3. A. fascicularis, Decaisne. Glabrous, slender, 3 to 5 feet high : leaves in 



whorls of 3 to T), (,r tlie lower and uppermost opposite, sometimes also with fas- 

 cicles in the axils, linear and linear-lanceolate, slightly petioled (2 to o inches long, 

 1 to 6 lines wide) : peduncles slender, often in whorls : pedicels and calyx com- 

 monly puberulent : flowers white or whitish : lobes of the corolla oblong (2 lines 

 long) : column of filaments half as long as the anthers : horns longer than the 

 hood, subulate, and conspicuously incurvetl over the summit of the stigma : follicles 



