MILKWEED FAMILY. Asclepiadaceae. 
MILKWEED FAMILY. _  Asclepiadaceae. 
A large family, widely distributed, most abundant in 
warm regions; ours are perennial herbs, usually with milky 
juice and tough fibrous inner bark; leaves generally large, 
toothless, without stipules; flowers peculiar in shape, in 
roundish clusters; calyx with a short tube or none and five 
lobes; corolla five-lobed; stamens five, on the base of the 
corolla, with short, stout filaments, anthers more or less 
united around the disk-like stigma, which covers and unites 
the two short styles of the superior ovary. The two parts 
of the ovary develop into two conspicuous pods, opening 
at the side, containing numerous flattish seeds, arranged 
along a thick, central axis, usually each with a tuft of 
‘silky down to waft it about. , 
There are many kinds of Asclepias, with oddly-shaped 
flowers, interesting and decorative in form; calyx rather 
small, the pointed sepals turned back; corolla with its 
petals turned entirely back, so as to cover the sepals and 
expose the peculiar-looking central arrangements of the 
flower, called the ‘‘crown.’”’ In the middle is the large, flat, 
shield-shaped, five-lobed or five-angled stigma, surrounded 
by the anthers, which are more or less united to each other 
and to the stigma, encircled by five, odd, little honey- 
bearing hoods, the same color as the petals, each with a 
horn, either enclosed within it or projecting from it, the 
whole collection of stigma, anthers, and hoods, forming the 
“‘crown.’”’ The pods are thick and pointed. Named for 
sculapius, as some of these plants are medicinal. Indians 
used to make twine from the fibrous bark of some kinds. 
Showy Milkweed A handsome plant, decorative in form 
seid pins Space and harmonious in coloring, with a stout 
Pink stem, from one to four feet tall, and light 
Spring,summer bluish-green leaves, usually covered with 
West white down. The flowers are sweet- 
scented, with woolly pedicels, purplish-pink petals, and 
waxy, white “hoods,” the buds yellowish-pink. The 
cluster, about three inches across, sometimes comprises 
as many as fifty flowers and is very beautiful in tone, being 
a mass of delicately blended, warm, soft. tints of pink, 
cream, and purple. This grows in canyon bottoms and 
along streams. 
374 

