
MILKWEED FAMILY. Asclepiadaceae. 
din Sariesiich This is three feet or more tall, fine- 
Asclépias erdsa 100King, though too pale, with a stout, 
Greenish-white smooth, gray-green stem and gray-green 
Spring — leaves, mottled with white and very stiff, 
> sete: the under side white-woolly, and flower- 
clusters two and a half inches across, composed of numer- 
ous greenish-white flowers, each half an inch long, their 
stalks covered with white wool. 
BRATS A foot and a half tall, with very fragrant 
Asclépias vestita OWwers, and very woolly all over, especially 
var. Mohavénsis the upper leaves, stems and buds, which 
Yellow and pink are thick with long white wool. The buds 
ee are pinkish-purple and the flowers have 
California i 
dull pink petals and cream-colored hoods, 
becoming yellow, and form clusters over two inches across. 
This grows in the Mohave Desert and the effect is har- 
monious, but not so handsome as the last. 
The genus Gomphocarpus is distinguished from As- 
clepias by the absence of horns or crests in the hoods. 
A handsome plant, smooth all over and 
more or less tinged with purple, with a 
Gom phocérpus 
covilifolius stout, purple stem, from one and a half 
(Asclepias) to three feet tall, with rubbery, dull, light 
Purple and yellow bluish-green leaves. The flowers are 
cama - scentless, with purplish sepals, maroon or 
are purple petals, and yellowish or pinkish 
hoods, and form a very loose graceful cluster, over three 
inches across, dark in color and contrasting well with the 
foliage. This is common in Yosemite and elsewhere in 
California, at moderate altitudes. 
The genus Asclepiodora, of the southern part of North 
America, resembles Asclepias, but the flowers are larger, 
the petals not turned back, the hoods flatter, with crests 
instead of horns; leaves mainly alternate; corolla wheel- 
shaped; petals spreading; hoods oblong, blunt, spreading 
and curving upward, crested inside; five tiny appendages 
alternating with the anthers and forming an inner crown 
around the stigma. The name is from the Greek, meaning 
the gift of A’sculapius. 
Purple Milkweed 
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