APOCYNACE^E, ASCLEPIADACE^E. 179 



the lower part of the scape, or thick rootstock, from which 

 they spring. Plant about a foot high. 



5. MMffAJf'THEMUM, Gmelin. FLOATING HEART. 

 L. laeunos'um, Griseb. In shallow waters, northern 

 Ontario. 



ORDER LXX. APOCYNA CE2. (DOGBANE FAMILY.) 

 Herbs or slightly shrubby plants, with milky juice, op- 

 posite simple entire leaves, and regular pentamerous and 

 pentandrous flowers with the lobes of the corolla convolute 

 in the bud. Distinguished by having 2 separate ovaries, but 

 the 2 stigmas united. Calyx free from the ovaries. Anthers 

 converging round the stigmas. Seeds with a tuft of down 

 on the apex. Represented with us only by the Genus 



APO'CXFM, Tourn. DOGBANE. 



1. A. androssemifo'lium, L. (SPREADING DOGBANE.) The 

 corolla bell-shaped, 5-cleft, pale rose-coloured, the lobes turned 

 back. Branches of the stem widely forking . Flowers in loose 

 rather spreading cymes. Leaves ovate, petioled. Fruit 2 

 long and slender diverging pods. Banks and thickets. 



2. A, eannab'inum, L. (INDIAN HEMP.) Lobes of the 

 greenish-white corolla not turned back. Branches erect. 

 Cymes closer than in No. 1, and the flowers much smaller. 

 Along streams, very variable. 



ORDER LXXI. ASCLEPIADA'CE^. (MILKWEED F.) 

 Herbs with milky juice and opposite or whorled (rarely 

 scattered) simple entire leaves. Pods, seeds, and anthers as 

 in the last Order, but the anthers are more closely connected 

 with the stigma, the (reftexed) lobes of the corolla are valvate 

 in the bud, the pollen is in waxy masses, and the (monadelph- 

 ous) short filaments bear 5 curious hooded bodies behind the 

 anthers. Flowers in umbels. 



Synopsis of the Genera. 



1. Ascle'pias. Corolla reflexed, deeply 5-parted. A crown of 5 hooded 

 fleshy bodies with an incurved horn rising from the cavity of each 

 hood. Leaves mostly opposite or whorled. 



