0437 



SILK VINE. 



Family: APOCYNACEAE. [Translator's note: now in family Asclepiadaceae.] 

 Reproductive system: PENTANDRY, DlGYNY. 



The stem of the Grecian silk vine, Periploca grceca, LINN., grows thirty or forty 

 feet high. It's smooth, cylindrical, and very flexible. Without any tendrils, it winds around 

 whatever support it encounters. The branches often are interlaced with one another. The 

 leaves are opposite, petiolate, oval-lanceolate, with very entire margins, acuminate tips, 

 rounded at the base, and almost shiny above. The flowers, in small corymbs, are situated 

 at the ends of the branches. They're purple inside and yellowish green at the top. The 

 underside is smooth and almost yellow. The calyx is small, persistent, and divided into 

 five smooth oval-pointed teeth. The corolla, with short hairs, is divided into five 

 elongated, linear, somewhat fleshy strips. Inside are five slender filaments as long as the 

 petals and recurved inward at the top. The stamens are very short and terminate in 

 bilobed anthers. The ovary consists of two parts with elongated tips forming the styles. It 

 develops into two long cylindrical curved capsules that come together at their top. They 

 contain flat overlapping seeds and are crowned by a very white soft downy feather. 



FLOWERS: during August. 



RANGE: Syria and the Greek islands. 



HISTORY. This shrub has been grown in ornamental gardens in France and in 

 parts of Europe for a long time. Clusius [Translator's note: Carolus Clusius, or Charles de 

 l'Escluse, 1526-1609, a botanist and physician who lived in France and the Netherlands] 

 and J. Bauhin provided an illustration and a description without giving its history, so it's 

 difficult to determine when it first was introduced into our climate. The common name is 

 Virginia silk tree. 



