364 
GENTIANACEJE. (GENTIAN FAMILY.) 
flowers solitary or in clusters of three, terminal and axillary, near¬ 
ly sessile. (Name from 6/3oAos, a small Greek coin, to which, 
however, the leaves of this plant certainly bear no manifest re¬ 
semblance.) 
1. O. Virgimica, L. ( Gray , Chlor. Bor.-Am., t. 3.) — Rich 
soil, in woods, from New Jersey to Ohio and southward, rare, often 
nearly concealed by dead leaves. April, May. — Plant 4' - 8' high. 
Order 79, APOCYNACEiE. (Dogbane Family.) 
Plants with milky acrid juice , entire chiefly opposite 
leaves without stipules , regular b-merous and 5-androus 
flowers , with the 5 lobes of the corolla convolute and twisted 
in the hud , the filaments distinct , inserted on the corolla , 
and the pollen granular , the calyx entirely free from the 
two ovaries, which are usually quite distinct, though their 
styles are coalescent. ~~ Seeds amphitropous or anatropous, 
with a large straight embryo in sparing albumen. Chiefly 
tropical, represented in the Northern States only by the 
genus 
1. APOCYNUM, Tourn. Dogbane. Indian Hemp. 
Calyx 5-parted, the lobes acute. Corolla bell-shaped, 5-cleft, 
bearing 5 triangular appendages in the throat opposite the lobes. 
Stamens inserted on the very base of the corolla, shorter than the 
arrow-shaped anthers, which converge around the ovoid obscurely 
2-lobed stigma, and are slightly adherent to it by their inner face. 
Fruit of 2 long and slender follicles. Seeds provided with a long 
tuft of silky down at the apex (coma). -^Perennial herbs, not 
climbing, with mucronate-pointed leaves, a tough fibrous bark, and 
small and pale cymose flowers on short pedicels. (An ancient 
Greek name, composed of wro', from, and kvcov, a dog , to which 
the plant was thought to be poisonous.) 
1. A. androssemifolium, L. (Spreading Dogbane.) 
Smooth, branched above, the branches diverging; forking; leaves 
ovate , distinctly petioled ; cymes loose , spreading , mostly longer than 
the leaves; corolla (pale rose-color) open-bell-shaped , with revolute 
lobes, the tube much longer than the ovate pointed divisions of the calyx. 
—■ Varies, also, with the leaves downy underneath. — Borders of 
