



DOGBANE FAMILY. Apocynaceac. 
Spider Milkweed A striking plant, though dull in color, 
cele pindine from one to one and a half feet tall, with a 
deciimbens rough, rather slanting stem, dull green, 
Green and roughish, rather leathery leaves, and 
ee clusters of slightly sweet-scented, queer- 
Spring, summer ; . 
Southwest looking flowers, each over half an inch 
across, with greenish-yellow petals, the 
hoods white inside and maroon outside, their tips curved in, 
a green stigma and brownanthers. The effect is a dull-yel- 
low rosette, striped with maroon, curiously symmetrical 
and stiff in form, suggesting an heraldic ‘‘ Tudor rose.”’ 
The pods, three or four inches long, stand up stiffly, on 
pedicels curved like hooks. This grows on dry hillsides 
and is widely distributed. 
DOGBANE FAMILY. A pocynaceae. 
A large family, widely distributed, chiefly tropical; ours 
are perennial herbs, with milky, bitter juice; leaves tooth- 
less, usually opposite, without stipules; flowers perfect, 
parts in fives; corolla united; stamens on the corolla, as 
many as its lobes, alternate with them, ovary superior, 
in two parts, united by a single or two-parted style, de- 
veloping into two pods; seeds often tufted with hairs. The 
Greek name alludes to the superstition that these plants 
are poisonous to dogs. 
There are many kinds of Apocynum, with branching 
stems, tough fibrous bark, and small, white or pink flowers, 
in clusters; calyx with pointed teeth, its tube adhering to 
the cvaries by means of a thickish, five-lobed disk; corolla 
bell-shaped, five-lobed, with five, small, triangular appen- 
dages, inside the tube, opposite the lobes; stamens with 
short, broad filaments and arrow-shaped anthers, slightly 
adhering to the blunt, obscurely two-lobed stigma; pod 
slender, cylindrical; seeds numerous, small, feathery. 
An attractive plant, from one to four 
Be Thea feet high, with many, smooth, widely 
‘Sen spreading branches, purplish on one side, 
A pécynum an- and smooth leaves, rather dark green 
drosaemifolium above, pale underneath, with yellowish 
White, pink veins. The little flowers are white, tinged 
Summer ; 3 : : . ihe 
West, ete with pink, often striped: with pink inside, 
mainly in loose clusters at the ends of the 
378 
Spreading Dog- 


