MILKWEED FAMILY. Asclepiadaceae. 



This is three feet or more tall, fine* 

 Pale Milkweed , , . 



Asdlpios erdsa looking, though too pale, with a stout, 

 Greenish- white smooth, gray-green stem and gray-green 

 Spring leaves, mottled with white and very stiff, 



California the under s j de w hite-woolly, and flower- 



clusters two and a half inches across, composed of numer- 

 ous greenish-white flowers, each half an inch long, their 

 stalks covered with white wool. 



A foot and a half tall, with very fragrant 

 Desert Milkweed 



Asdtpias vestlta flowers an d ver Y woolly all over, especially 

 var. Mohavensis the upper leaves, stems and buds, which 

 Yellow and pink a re thick with long white wool. The buds 

 are pinkish-purple and the flowers have 

 dull pink petals and cream-colored hoods, 

 becoming yellow, and form clusters over two inches across. 

 This grows in the Mohave Desert and the effect is har- 

 monious, but not so handsome as the last. 



The genus Gomphocarpus is distinguished from As- 

 clepias by the absence of horns or crests in the hoods. 



A handsome plant, smooth all over and 



Purple Milkweed more Qr legs t j nged w j t h purp le, with a 

 Gomphocarpus . 



cordifdiius stout, purple stem, from one and a half 



(Asdepias) to three feet tall, with rubbery, dull, light 



Purple and yellow bluish-green leaves. The flowers are 



Summer scentless, with purplish sepals, maroon or 



Oreg., Cal. t _ 



purple petals, and yellowish or pinkish 



hoods, and form a very loose graceful cluster, over three 

 inches across, dark in color and contrasting well with the 

 foliage. This is common in Yosemite and elsewhere in 

 California, at moderate altitudes. 



The genus Asclepiodora, of the southern part of North 

 America, resembles Asclepias, but the flowers are larger, 

 the petals not turned back, the hoods flatter, with crests 

 instead of horns; leaves mainly alternate; corolla wheel- 

 shaped; petals spreading; hoods oblong, blunt, spreading 

 and curving upward, crested inside; five tiny appendages 

 alternating with the anthers and forming an inner crown 

 around the stigma. The name is from the Greek, meaning 

 the gift of ^3sculapius. 



