frEXTAXBRIA DIfiYXIA 169 



Jterhuceoiis, or f rut i cose : mostly lactescent; leaves entire, opposite, verticillate, 

 #r scattered ; peduncles terminal, and axillary ; flowers in umbels. Sat. Ord. 195. 

 lAndl. Asclbpiadejb. 



* 1, Lcpanthium with horns, -j- Leaves opposite. * Follicles muricate m 



1. A. svriaca, L. Stem subsimple ; leaves lancc-oblong, acute, pec- 

 ulate, tomentose beneath ; umbels subterminal, somewhat nodding ; 

 segments of the lepanthium bidentate on the margin. Beck, Bot. 

 p. 235. 



Siriax Asclepias. Vulgo — Silk-weed. Wild Cotton. Swallow-wort. 

 Stem 3 to 4 feet high, erect, mostly simple, smoothish. Leaves 6 to 8 Inches long 

 and about 3 inches wide, acute, or with a small acuminatum, nearly smooth above, 

 whitish tomentose beneath ; petioles about half an inch long. ' Umbels 2 to 4, axil- 

 lary near the summit of the stem; common peduncles 2 to 3 inches long, stout, pu- 

 bescent ; pedicels ai inch to an inch and hali long, pubescent, with villose lance- 

 linear bracts at base. Flowers numerous, large, sweet-scented. Corolla pale 

 greenish purple. Lepanthium, Nutt. (Nectary, L. Stamineal crown, Br. Ell. Torr. 

 &c.) adnatc at base to the filaments, forming with them a short tube ; segments 

 whitish, fleshy, obtuse, with an acute membranaceous tooth on each indexed mar- 

 gin; horns acute, exscrted. Antheridium* Nutt. (connate, or syngenesious mass 

 •f anthers,) somewhat pyramidal, depressed-truncate, 5-angled, separable into 5 

 aatheroid lobes; each lobe with reflected wing-like rigid margins, adapted to the 

 adjoining ones so as to appear cleft, or with a fissure in the projecting angles, — and 

 terminating at apex in an ovate incurved scarious cusp; lobes 2-celled ; cells open 

 at summit, each containing a yellow waxy compressed pyriform pollen mass, pen- 

 dulous in pairs from a small black shining lance-ovoid sulcate tubercle at the apex 

 ef the fissure, — and so connected that each pair, suspended by filiform geniculate 

 •tipes, occupy the contiguous cells of distinct lobes. Ovaries distinct, tapering 

 into short (lexuose styles ; stigmas obscurely lobed. Follicles 3 to 5 inches long, 

 and an inch to an inch and a half in diameter, erect on deflected pedicels, ventri- 

 Ose, acuminate, tomentose, armed with flexible spine-like points about one third 

 ef an inch long. Seeds imbricated, flat, orate, or pyriform, with a winged margin, 

 crowned with a tuft of long white silky hairs. 



Mob. Low grounds, along streams ; road sides : frequent. PL June- July. FY. Sept. 

 Obs. Much of the detailed description, given above, will apply to the whole gt- 

 aus. All our species of Asclepias have herbaceous stems, and perennial roots. A 

 very large proportion of the flowers are abortive ; few of the umbels perfecting 

 More than one or two follicles, — and many of then* not one. This is a stout coarse 

 species,— -not very common in this vicinity ; But abundant in many localities,— par- 

 ticularly on the flats along large streams. It is said that the Turions, or young 

 shoots, have been used as a substitute for Asparagus; anil that Sugar has beerv 

 ehtained from the expressed juice of the flowers. 



* * Follicles unarmed, or not muricate. 



2. A. am<e*a, /,. Stem somewhat branched at summit, marked witk 

 two longitudinal pubescent lines ; leaves elliptic-oblong, acute, or often 

 obtuse, mucronate, pubescent beneath ; umbels terminal, erect ; segment* 

 of the lepanthium entire on the margin ; horns gibbous, much incurved, 

 subulate at apex. Beck, Bot. p. 235. 



A. purpurascens. Florid, Cestr. p. 32, Not? of Linn, and other*, 

 Plbasix* Asclipias, 



16 





