76 PLANTS GROWING IN MUD. 
SWAMP MILKWEED. 
Asclepias incarndata. 
FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 
Milkweed. Crimson. Scentless. Matne to Louisiana. July-September. 
Flowers: perfect; regular; growing in terminal umbels. Calyx: of five 
sepals, the tube very short. Coroé/a ; funnel-form, with five reflexed lobes that 
nearly hide the sepals. ‘The next inner row of upright bodies are hoods, or 
nectaries that enclose five little incurved horns ; and under these horns are the 
stamens and pistils. Séamens : five, with fringed tips that are not the anthers : 
united and enclosing the pistils. Amthers: attached to the short filaments by 
their bases. /od/en : in distinct little masses ; two being attached together 
by athread. /ustz/s: two; united above into a flat, sticky disk. Fruit: a 
pair of pods with numerous seeds and soft, silky hairs; seldom more than one 
becoming fully developed. Leaves: narrow; oblong ; somewhat heart-shaped 
at base. Svem: two to three feet high ; very leafy ; smooth, with little milky 
juice. 
Of this very striking and handsome family Professor Britton 
says: “There are about 220 genera and 1goo species of very 
wide distribution.” 
The flowers are difficult, but not impossible, for the non- 
botanist to analyse ; and the attempt will at all events pique 
one’s curiosity enough to encourage him to pry closely into 
their intricacies. 
The milkweeds are entirely dependent on insects for fertiliza- 
tion ; as the pollen masses lie too low in the blossoms to reach 
the stigma. It is for this reason that they have provided them- © 
selves with the little hoods that hold the nectar, as it could not 
be retained by the reflexed corolla lobes. Bees, therefore, visit 
the plants gladly, and when their feet become entangled in the 
tiny thread that holds together the pollen masses they carry 
them off without complaining. A. Syriaca, page 280, Plate 
CALL. 
A. lanceolata, (Plate XXXTI/) is a brilliant variety of the 
swamps that occurs southward from New Jersey to Florida and 
Texas. The umbels have but few flowers, very large and 
showy, and are of an intense orange-red colour. It blooms in 
July and August. 
