Apocynece A msonia. 



299 



A. salicifolia has a less erect habit, smaller flowers, and 

 lanceolate leaves ; and A. ciliata linear leaves. 



3. APCCYNUM. 



Erect perennial herbs with tough fibrous bark. Leaves 

 opposite, mucronate. Flowers cymose, on axillary or terminal 

 peduncles. Corolla campanulate, bearing five triangular 

 appendages at the mouth of the tube. Fruit of two slender 

 follicles ; seeds plumose at one end. There are three North 

 American and one South European species. The name is a 

 compound of a-rro, from, and KVWV, a dog, supposed to be 

 poisonous to dogs, whence the English name Dogbane. 



1. A. androscemifolium. Fly-trap. A branching herb 

 from 1 to 2 feet high with ovate glabrous petiolate leaves and 

 small pale red flowers in loose cymes. Corolla-tube much 

 longer than the calyx-lobes. An interesting and curious 

 plant remarkable for the 

 irritability of the gluti- 

 nous throat-appendages, 

 which collapse upon in- 

 truding insects and retain 

 them prisoners. A 

 native of North America, 

 flowering towards the end 

 of Summer. 



A. cannabinum, 

 Indian Hemp, is a vari- 

 able species having 

 several synonyms. The 

 flowers are greenish 

 white, and the corolla- 

 tube does not exceed the 

 calyx-lobes. A. Venetum 

 is the European species. 



The Oleander, Nerium 

 Oleander (fig. 168), is 

 really a greenhouse plant F & 168 - Nerlum Bander fionbua pienis. 



with us, though it will exist in the open air in the South-west 

 of England if protected in Winter. It may be well to mention 

 that this plant, so commonly seen in windows, is excessively 

 poisonous. There are many handsome double-flowered varie- 

 ties. Parechttes Thunbergii, better known in gardens under 



