HARPER'S GUIDE TO WILD FLOWERS 



lance-shaped, alternate, sharply toothed; the lower, often under 

 water, cut into comb-like divisions. Stems, low and creeping, 8 

 to 20 inches high. 



Growing in shallow water or in the mud along its banks 

 throughout the Atlantic coast and westward. 



Poke Milkweed 



Asclepias phytolaccoides. — Family, Milkweed. Color, green- 

 ish; hoods white. (See description of this Family, p. 10.) heaves, 

 with short petioles, large, broad, ovate to roundish. 



A tall, rank-growing species of milkweed, 3 to 5 feet high, 

 with pedicelled flowers in terminal and lateral umbels. The 

 horn projecting from the white hood has a long, somewhat 

 curved point. Stem, 3 to 5 feet high. The flowers are 

 loosely clustered, each on a limp, drooping pedicel, as long 

 as the common peduncle. Deep, cool, moist woods. New 

 England, south to Georgia and Alabama. 



Sweet-scented Bedstraw 



Galium triflbrum. — Family, Madder. The galiums all have rather 

 slender, square stems, often roughened along the angles, so that 

 they cling to other plants, and sprawl rather than climb. Their 

 flowers and leaves are in whorls or clusters. In this species the 

 calyx is tubular; corolla, 4-parted; stamens, 4; styles, 2; fruit, 

 double, beset with hooked hairs for its dissemination. Leaves, 

 1 to 2 inches long, roughened along the edges, 4, 5, or 6 in a 

 whorl. June and July. 



This plant has a pleasant fragrance when dried. Com- 

 mon in rich woods along the coast and in the interior. 



Ragweed. Hogweed. Bitter-weed. Roman Wormwood 



Ambrosia, artemisiifolia. — Family, Composite. Leaves, much cut 

 and thin, opposite and alternate. 



This unwelcome weed, when examined under the microscope, 

 shows the fertile and sterile flowers in different heads on the same 

 plant. The spikes of flowers above are staminate. Below, in the 

 leaf-axils, are 3 pistillate flowers. Often the plant exhales rather 

 a disagreeable odor. Its pollen is said to produce hay-fever. It 

 has a strong, spreading root. 



Mr. W. H. Gibson has found something curious and likable 

 in this ugly weed. He says: "The pith obtained from the 

 stem is lighter and more buoyant than any vegetable tissue 

 of like bulk. It seems almost to float as it falls from your 

 hand, w T hile its cross-fracture, with its iridescent sheen, cer- 



36 



