98 ASCLEPIADACE^. Asdepias. 



3. Column none. 

 A. cinerea, Walt. Glabrous or nearly so : stem very slender, a foot or two high : leaves 

 all opposite, spreading, very narrowly linear (1 to 3 inches long, half to a line wide); 

 umbels terminal and subterminal at the naked summit of the stem, loosely 5-7-flowered : 

 filiform drooping pedicels longer than the peduncle : corolla dull purplish outside, ash-color 

 within ; the lobes tardily reflexed, oval, 3 lines long : hoods considerably shorter than the 

 anthers, broader than high, truncate at the Tbaek, the involute inner angles extended in a 

 triangular acute ascending lobe, which exceeds the broad triangular horn. — Car. 105 ; 

 Ell. Sk. i. 325 ; Cliapm. 1. c. — Low pine barrens, S. Carolina to Florida. 



b. Corolla and calyx merely rotately spreading, not reflexed. 

 A. Feayi, Chapm. Stem filiform, erect, a foot or two high : leaves all opposite, in 4 to 

 6 pairs, spreading, linear-filiform (2 to 4 inches long, barely half a line wide), glabrous, often 

 wanting above at the 2 or 3 approximate short-peduncled 3-5-flowered umbels : corolla 

 white ; the lobes oblong or at length narrower, 3 or 4 lines long : column none : hoods white 

 and petaloid except a thickish midrib, barely as long as the sagittate-based anthers,' spread- 

 ing, concave, entire ; in place of horn a semioval entire crest or plate adnate to the middle 

 of ths back within : follicles not seen. — Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. xii. 72. — Tampa, Florida, 

 Leavenworth (in herb. Torr.), Dr. Feay, Dr. Garber. 



§ 2. Podostemma, Gray. Hoods long-stipitate, their stalks adnate to nearly 

 the whole length of the antheriferous column, surpassing the anthers ; the crest- 

 like process adnate to the nearly open lamina : anther-wings broader and some- 

 what angulate about the middle : umbels all lateral. — Proc. Am. Acad. xii. 72. 



A. longicornu, Benth. A span to a foot or more high, minutely and somewhat hir- 

 sutely pubescent : leaves all opposite, from ovate to oblong-lanceolate, obtuse, 2 to 4 inches 

 long, petioled : umbels short-peduncled or nearly sessile, several-many-flowered : flowers 

 yellowish-green : corolla-lobes a fourth to half inch long, oblong : hoods with stalk-like 

 portion twice the length of the gradually dilated whitish somewhat 2-3-lobed or toothed 

 lamina ; the process infra-apical and divided into 2 short subulate and fleshy horns, ; the 

 exterior horn barely equalling the apex of the hood ; the inner twice longer, incurved and 

 somewhat exserted : follicles arrect on the deflexe'd pedicel, ovate-oblong, acuminate, at 

 first canescent or pubescent or roughish. — PI. Hartw. 24 ; Decaisne, 1. c. 570. A. Lindheimeri, 

 Engelm. & Gray, PI. Lindh. ii. 42. — Texas and New Mexico. (Mex., Nicaragua.) 



§ 3. Nothacerates, Gray. Anther-wings widening to the broadly rounded 

 base and conspicuously auriculate-notched just above it : hoods sessile, with a 

 narrow wholly adnate internal crest terminating in a minute horn : habit of 

 Acerat.es : pollinia short and thick, arcuate-obovate. 



A. stenophylla, Gray. Puberulent, but foliage glabrous : stems slender, a foot or two 

 high, simple : leaves long and narrowly linear (3 to 7 inches long, 1 to 2-J- lines wide), with 

 scabrous and more or less revolute margins and a strong midrib ; the upper alternate and 

 the lower opposite : umbels several, short-peduncled or subsessile, 10-15-flowered : pedicels 

 about twice the length of the greenish flowers : corolla-lobes oblong, 2 lines long : column 

 very short : hoods whitish, erect, equalling the anthers, oblong, conduplicate-concave, the 

 base of each inner margin appendaged by a cuneate erosely truncate lobe, the apex 

 2-lobed and the narrow internal crest exserted in the sinus in the form of an intermediate 

 tooth: interior crown of 5 very small 2-lobed processes between the bases of the anthers : 

 follicles slender-fusiform and long-acuminate, erect on the ascending pedicel. — Proc. Am. 

 Acad. xii. 72. Polyotus angustifolius, Nutt. in Trans. Am. Phil. Soe. ser. 2, v. 201. Acerates 

 angusti folia, Decaisne, 1. c. 522. — Dry prairies, W. Arkansas and N. Texas to Nebraska and 

 Colorado. Connecting link between Asclepias and Acerates. 



7. ACERATES, Ell. (Formed of «, privative', and aeijag, a horn.) —At- 

 lantic U. S. perennial herbs, resembling Asclepias ; with comparatively small 

 flowers greenish or barely tinged with purple, in summer. Umbels many-flowered, 

 sessile or short-peduncled. Distinguished only by the total absence of horn or 



