THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
105 
pf oduction of species ; indeed it is these variations that 
cause us to recognize species. Each species of milkweed, 
for instance, has its own special color. The tall, common 
A. cornuti is flesh colored ; the poke-leaved milkweed {A. 
phytolaccoides) a paler, more delicate shade of the same 
hue; A, quadrifolia, a charming little woodland species, 
nearly white; A, purpvrascens a glorious purple; A. in- 
carnata^ a swamp species, red ; finally and most glorious 
of all is A. tuberosa, the butterfly weed, which is a flam- 
ming transcendent orange. All these plants are, in New 
England, a feature of the summer landscape, the incarnata 
especially so from its situation in swamps or meadows. 
From car windows one catches a flash of the superb 
tuberosa. This species is well worth a place in the flower 
garden. Entomologists have, of course, long know^n that 
milkweeds furnish good collecting grounds for lepidoptera 
and coleoptera. They swarm with butterflies and beetles. 
One rarely fails to find, hovering over their flowers, the 
milkweed butterfly par excellence, the Danais Archippus, 
beautiful as larva, chrysalis, or imago. The chrysalis, 
indeed, is one of the most exquisite objects in nature — a 
pure apple-green casket beset with a ring of dazzling gold 
beads. When one finds it, he may well exclaim, w^hat an 
ear-drop for Titania I The perfect butterfly is a deep 
sienna color, striped w4th black and spotted here and 
there with white. It is well worth w^hile to feed the larvae 
and watch their transformations. 
The dogbanes {Apocynum) are near relatives of milk- 
w^eeds,and like them exude a milky juice when the stem or 
leaves or pods are abraded. Kerner maintains that this 
sticky exudation serves as a partial protection against 
ants and other marauders whose sharp claws penetrate 
the epidermis of the stem. The escaping milk soon 
hardens and mires the feet of the intruder. The dogbanes, 
one of w^hich has lovely pink bell-like flowers, are visited 
by a very handsome beetle, green and gold, known as the 
gilded dandy." 
Of course man has attempted to utilize so fine a 
