WEEDS OF THE MILKWEED F\.MII.Y 



107 



7". ASCLEPIAS SYRIACA L. Common M i lkweed. Silk Weed. Wild Cotton. 



(P. X. -j. i 

 stem stout, soit-dowiiy. usually simple, '■> •", feel high; leaves opposite, 

 oblong or oral, short-stalked, densely hairy beneath, 4-9 inches long, 2-1 



inches wide. Flowers dull purple, the hoods 

 short, obtuse with a tooth each side of the short 

 horn. Tods robust, 3-5 inches long, the outside 

 woolly and bearing numerous short soft tufts 

 or watts. Seeds hrown. flat, } inch long, with 

 an abundance of silky hairs. (Fig. 72.) 



Common along roadsides, fence-rows 

 and in blue-grass pastures. June-Aug. 

 The milky juice is very plentiful, exuding 

 whenever the leaves or stems are bruised, 

 and is used by children as a remedy for 

 warts. The root is used in medicine and 

 when properly dried brings about 4 cents 

 per pound. Where once started in a pas- 

 ture the deep running rootstocks spread 

 rapidly and send up numerous stems so 

 that the area affected becomes much larger yi>i\v by year. Rem- 

 edies: repeated mowing or grubbing while in blossom ; in cultivated 

 lands, thorough hoeing and heavy cropping. 



The Morning-glory Family - -CONVOLVULACE^. 



Mostly twining, elimbing or trailing herbs with alternate leaves 

 and regular solitary or elustered axillary flowers. Sepals 5 ; petals 

 5, twisted in the bud. usually united their full length to form a 

 large bell-shaped or funnel-form corolla (Fig. 10, /. ; stamens 5, 

 inserted low down on the tube of the corolla; ovary above and not 

 united with the calyx. 2-4-eelled with a pair of ovules in each cell. 

 Fruit a 2— t-valved capsule. 



A large family most abundant in the tropics, many of which 

 are with us cultivated for ornament and one. the sweet potato, for 

 its edible roots. Nine species, known as morning-glories and bind- 

 weeds, grow wild in the State, three al least of which are trouble- 

 some weeds. The glory of these wild morning-glories, how it en- 

 trances us! 'Tis a Mower whose beauty is without a peer. The 

 eye of each bloom is set deep within the tube of the corolla and 

 beams out at us with an expression of most tender li« mk 1 will if we 

 hut deign to give it passing notice. They ate goddesses of the night 

 and early morn — born in the former — reigning in the latter and 

 closing forever their evanescent eves before the fiercer- beams of the 



