316 ASCLEPIADACEAE (MILK WEED FAMILY) 
the disk-like stigma. The fruits are twin follicles, three to five 
inches long, gray-hairy, pointed at both ends, their pedicels so 
bent as to hold them nearly erect. Seeds flat, margined, brown, 
bearing a coma or tuft of long, silky hairs. (Fig. 220.) 
Means of control 
Persistently deprive the tuberous roots of green growth above 
ground and they will at length wither and die. Begin cutting 
before the first flowers mature, and repeat as often as new shoots 
put forth. Dry salt applied to the shorn surfaces will check new 
growth. 
SWAMP MILKWEED 
Asclépias incarnata, L. 
Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: July to September. 
Seed-time: Late August to October. 
Range: New Brunswick to the Northwest Territory, southward to 
Tennessee, Louisiana, and Kansas. 
Habitat: Wet ground; low meadows, swamps, and along ditches. 
In a report on “Fiber Investigations” made by the United 
States Department of Agriculture, it is stated that this plant 
yields a tough fiber, finer than that of hemp, soft, glossy, and 
possessed of great strength. Binder twine made of it stood a 
breaking test of ninety-five to a hundred and twenty-five pounds. 
It is a pity that the plant is not utilized so as to make valuable 
many a profitless swamp or marsh. Its hard, knotty roots are used 
in medicine, and are worth three or four cents a pound when col- 
lected in late autumn and carefully dried. 
Stems slender, two to five feet tall, round, smooth, often reddish, 
sometimes simple but usually branching above, leafy to the sum- 
mit. Leaves opposite, oblong-lance-shaped, smooth, long-pointed, 
usually obtuse at base, with rather short petioles. Flowers rosy 
purple, in flattened umbels, the pedicels finely hairy; the hoods 
of the crown erect and slim, the pointed horns within being as 
sharp as needles and longer than the hoods. Follicles slender, 
pointed at both ends, and held erect. 
