DOGBANE FAMILY. Apocynaceae. 



A striking plant, though dull in color, 

 Spider Milkweed ' 



Asdepioddra from one to one and a half feet tall, with a 



decumbens rough, rather slanting stem, dull green, 



Green and roughish, rather leathery leaves, and 



clusters of slightly sweet-scented, queer- 

 Spring, summer *.'.* , ,r 

 Southwest looking flowers, each over half an inch 



across, with greenish-yellow petals, the 

 hoods white inside and maroon outside, their tips curved in, 

 a green stigma and brown anthers. The effect is a dull-yel- 

 low rosette, striped with maroon, curiously symmetrical 

 and stiff in form, suggesting an heraldic "Tudor rose." 

 The pods, three? or four inches long, stand up stiffly, on 

 pedicels curved like hooks. This grows on dry hillsides 

 and is widely distributed. 



DOGBANE FAMILY. Apocynaceae. 



A large family, widely distributed, chiefly tropical; ours 

 are perennial herbs, with milky, bitter juice; leaves tooth- 

 less, usually opposite, without stipules; flowers perfect, 

 parts in fives; corolla united; stamens on the corolla, as 

 many as its lobes, alternate with them, ovary superior, 

 in two parts, united by a single or two-parted style, de- - 

 veloping into two pods; seeds often tufted with hairs. The 

 Greek name alludes to the superstition that these plants 

 are poisonous to dogs. 



There are many kinds of Apocynum, with branching 

 stems, tough fibrous bark, and small, white or pink flowers, 

 in clusters; calyx with pointed teeth, its tube adhering to 

 the ovaries by means of a thickish, five-lobed disk; corolla 

 bell-shaped, five-lobed, with five, small, triangular appen- 

 dages, inside the tube, opposite the lobes; stamens with 

 short, broad filaments and arrow-shaped anthers, slightly 

 adhering to the blunt, obscurely two-lobed stigma; pod 

 slender, cylindrical ; seeds numerous, small, feathery. 



An attractive plant, from one to four 



Spreading Dog- f t hi h ith many smoo th, widely 

 bane, Honey- 

 bloom spreading branches, purplish on one side, 



Apocynum an- and smooth leaves, rather dark green 



drosaemifdlium above, pale underneath, with yellowish 



White, pink veins. The little flowers are white, tinged 



West etc with pink, often striped with pink inside, 



mainly in loose clusters at the ends of the 



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