DOGBANE FAMILY. Apocynaces. 



DOGBANE FAMILY. Apocynacece. 



Chiefly a tropical family with few representatives in 

 our range. Plants with an acrid, milky juice, closely 

 related to the Milkweed Family. Leaves opposite (gen- 

 erally) and toothless. Flowers perfect, five-parted : sta- 

 mens as many as the lobes of the corolla (flower-cup), 

 the latter rolled up in the bud. Fertilized mostly by 

 butterflies and bees. 



A somewhat tall and shrublike plant, 

 with a smooth, slender, branching stem, 

 Apocynum generally reddish on the side exposed to 

 androscemi- sunlight. The opposite growing, lustre- 

 less light blue-green, ovate leaves are 

 7JH^u\ nk toothless . and rudd y short-stalked. The 

 delicate and beautiful little bell-shaped 

 flowers are white-pink, five-lobed, and lily -of-the- valley- 

 like, striped with pink on the inside of the cup. The 

 clusters are small and terminate the branches ; their 

 most frequent visitors are bees and butterflies, and 

 among the latter are the ever-present little yellow Colias 

 philodice and the handsome monarch (Anosiaplexippus). 

 Muller says the flower is fertilized by butterflies, and 

 cements its pollen to their tongues. An insect insepara- 

 ble from the dogbane is the so-called dogbane beetle 

 (Chrysochus auratus), jewellike and resplendent in met- 

 allic red and green of incomparable lustre; it is scarcely 

 ^ inch long (see Familiar Features of the Roadside, p. 

 178). 1-4 feet high. Common in half-shaded field bor- 

 ders, or in thickets throughout the north, and south to 

 Ga. 



in ian Hem A far less attractive species with green- 



Apocynu'tn * sn wn ^ e tiny flowers erectly five-pointed. 

 cannabinum Similar to the above in other respects, bu t 

 Greenish white less spreading and more upright. The 

 June-August leaves narrower and abruptly acute. 1-3 

 feet high. On sandy river-banks, in fields, and in thick- 

 ets everywhere. Both specie's found in Campton, N. H. 

 The name is Greek in origin dito, from, and xvoov, a 

 dog. 



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