FAMILIES OF PLANTS 
101 
and deep blue with lighter patches or streaks. The lobes of the 
corolla are toothed at the ends and fringed along the .sides. 
It is also known as Feather gentian. 
Gentiana plebeja has much smaller flowers, not much over half an 
inch long, and they are pale blue or lavender. 
Gentiana aftinis differs from the other two by having an appendage 
in each sinus between the regular lobes of the corolla. The append¬ 
ages are more or less toothed or cleft and are almost as large as the 
corolla-lobes. The corolla is about an inch long. 
Gentiana heterosepala and G. forwoodii have been reported in 
the park. 
Greengentian (Frasera speciosa) .—The stems of this plant are 
2 to 5 feet high and very leafy. The leaves are whorled in fours and 
sixes. The lowermost leaves are more or less oblong while the 
middle ones are lance-shaped and 
the upper ones are linear. The 
structure of the flower is similar 
to that of the other gentians. The 
corolla is greenish white and dark 
spotted and bears a pair of densely 
long-fringed glands on the inner 
side of the tube at about the 
middle. 
DOGBANE FAMILY 
(APOCYNACEAE) 
A family of herbs most of which 
have a milky juice or latex which 
contains, among other things, some 
rubber. The flower structure is 
much like that of a gentian, ex¬ 
cept that there are two distinct 
pistils. The fruit consists of two pods with large numbers of seeds, 
and the seeds are usually provided with long hairs which aid in wind 
dissemination. 
Spreading dogbane ( Apocynum androsaemifolium ) is a widely 
branching herb with simple, oval or oblong leaves and pink flowers 
with lighter stripes. 
Hemp dogbane (Apocynum cannabinum) has smaller, greenish- 
white flowers. 
PHLOX FAMILY (P0LEM0NIACEAE) 
The phlox family consists of small and medium-sized herbs, often 
with very showy flowers. The flowers have a numerical plan of 5 
Figure 78.—Greengentian. Greenish 
white. Photograph by Dr. Harvey E. 
Stork. 
