MILKWEED FAMILY. Asclepiadaceae. 



This is three feet or more tall, fin 

 Ascltpias crdso Booking, though too pale, with a stou 

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

 Spring t leaves, mottled with white and very stil 



the under side white-woolly, and flowe 

 clusters two and a half inches across, composed of nume 

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

 stalks covered with white wool. 



_ _. , A foot and a half tall, with very fragrai 

 Desert Milkweed _ 



A sdepias vestita fl owers, and very woolly all over, especial 

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

 Yellow and pink are thick with long white wool. The bu< 

 are pinkish-purple and the flowers ha^ 

 dull pink petals and cream-colored hood 

 becoming yellow, and form clusters over two inches acres 

 This grows in the Mohave Desert and the effect is ha 

 monious, but not so handsome as the last. 



The genus Gomphocarpus is distinguished from A 

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



A handsome plant, smooth all over ar 



Purple Milkweed more Qr legs t j d with purple> with 

 Gomphoc&rpus 



cordifdlius stout, purple stem, from one and a ha 



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



Purple and yellow bluish-green leaves. The flowers a: 



mer scentless, with purplish sepals, maroon < 



purple petals, and yellowish or pinkis 



hoods, and form a very loose graceful cluster, over thr< 



inches across, dark in color and contrasting well with tl 



foliage. This is common in Yosemite and elsewhere : 



California, at moderate altitudes. 



The genus Asclepiodora, of the southern part of Nort 

 America, resembles Asclepias, but the flowers are large 

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

 instead of horns; leaves mainly alternate; corolla wl 

 shaped; petals spreading; hoods oblong, blunt, spr 

 and curving upward, crested inside; five tiny appenc 

 alternating with the anthers and forming an inner crovl 

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

 the gift of ^Esculapius. 



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