Part 114 (1/2)

Filaments slender. Calyx glandular inside. Leaves opposite.

3. Apocynum. Seeds comose. Corolla bell-shaped, appendaged within.

Filaments short, broad and flat. Calyx not glandular. Leaves opposite.

1. AMSNIA, Walt.

Calyx 5-parted, small. Corolla with a narrow funnel-form tube bearded inside, especially at the throat; the limb divided into 5 long linear lobes. Stamens 5, inserted on the tube, included; anthers obtuse at both ends, longer than the filaments. Ovaries 2; style 1; stigma rounded, surrounded with a cup-like membrane. Pod (follicles) 2, long and slender, many-seeded. Seeds cylindrical, abrupt at both ends, packed in one row, naked.--Perennial herbs, with _alternate leaves_, and pale blue flowers in terminal panicled cymes. (Said to be named for a _Mr.

Charles Amson_.)

1. A. Tabernaemontana, Walt. Loosely p.u.b.escent or hairy when young, soon glabrous; leaves from ovate-lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, taper-pointed; calyx-lobes short, awl-shaped; tube of the bluish corolla little longer than the lobes, the upper part either hairy when young or glabrous.--Low grounds, N. C. to S. Ind. and Mo., south to Fla. and Tex.

May, June.

2. TRACHELOSPeRMUM, Lemare.

Calyx 5-parted, with 3--5 glands at its base inside. Corolla funnel-form, not appendaged; limb 5-lobed. Stamens 5, included; filaments slender; anthers arrow-shaped, with an inflexed tip. Pods (follicles) 2, slender, many-seeded. Seeds oblong, with a tuft of down.--Twining plants, more or less woody, with opposite leaves and small flowers in cymes. (Name from t???????, _a neck_, and sp??a, _seed_, upon the supposition that the seed was beaked.)

1. T. difforme, Gray. Nearly herbaceous and glabrous; leaves oval-lanceolate, pointed, thin; calyx-lobes taper-pointed; corolla pale yellow. (Forsteronia difformis, _A. DC._)--Damp grounds, Va. to Fla. and Tex. April.

3. APoCYNUM, Tourn. DOGBANE. INDIAN HEMP.

Calyx 5-parted, the lobes acute. Corolla bell-shaped, 5-cleft, bearing 5 triangular appendages below the throat opposite the lobes. Stamens 5, on the very base of the corolla; filaments flat, shorter than the arrow shaped anthers, which converge around the stigma, and are slightly adherent to it. Style none; stigma large, ovoid, slightly 2-lobed. Fruit of 2 long (2--7') and slender follicles. Seeds comose, with a tuft of long silky down at the apex.--Perennial herbs, with upright branching stems, opposite mucronate-pointed leaves, a tough fibrous bark, and small and pale cymose flowers on short pedicels. (Ancient name of the Dogbane, composed of ?p?, _from_, and ????, _a dog_.)

1. A. androsaemiflium, L. (SPREADING DOGBANE.) Smooth, or rarely soft-tomentose, branched above; _branches divergently forking; leaves ovate, distinctly petioled; cymes loose, spreading_, mostly longer than the leaves; _corolla_ (pale rose-color, 4” broad) _open-bell-shaped, with revolute lobes, the tube much longer than the ovate pointed divisions of the calyx_.--Borders of thickets; common. June, July.

2. A. cannabinum, L. (INDIAN HEMP.) Glabrous or more or less soft-p.u.b.escent; stem and branches _upright or ascending_ (2--3 high), terminated by _erect and close many-flowered cymes_, which are usually shorter than the leaves; leaves from oval to oblong and even lanceolate, short-petioled or sessile, with rounded or obscurely cordate base; _corolla_ (greenish-white) _with nearly erect lobes, the tube not longer than the lanceolate divisions of the calyx_.--Moist grounds and banks of streams; common. Very variable. July, Aug.

ORDER 67. ASCLEPIADaCEae. (MILKWEED FAMILY.)

_Plants with milky juice, and opposite or whorled (rarely scattered) entire leaves; the follicular pods, seeds, anthers (connected with the stigma), sensible properties, etc., just as in the last family, from which they differ in the commonly valvate corolla, and in the singular connection of the anthers with the stigma, the cohesion of the pollen into wax-like or granular ma.s.ses_ (pollinia), etc., as explained under the typical genus Asclepias.

PERiPLOCA GRae'CA, L., a woody climbing plant of the Old World, in ornamental cultivation, and in one or two places inclined to be spontaneous, represents a tribe with granulose pollen loosely aggregated in two ma.s.ses in each anther-cell. It has a brownish rotate corolla, very hairy within, and with 5 awned scales in the throat.

Tribe I. CYNANCHEae. Anthers tipped with an inflexed or sometimes erect scarious membrane, the cells lower than the top of the stigma; pollinia suspended.

[*] Stems erect or merely dec.u.mbent.

1. Asclepiodora. Corolla rotate, merely spreading. Crown of 5 hooded fleshy bodies, with a salient crest in each. Leaves alternate.

2. Asclepias. Corolla reflexed, deeply 5-parted. Crown as in n. 1, but with an incurved horn rising from the cavity of each hood. Leaves usually opposite.

3. Acerates. Corolla reflexed or merely spreading. Crown as in n. 1, but with neither crest nor horn inside. Leaves mainly alternate.

[*][*] Stems twining. Leaves mostly opposite.

4. Enslenia. Corolla erect. Crown of 5 membranaceous flat bodies, terminated by a 2-cleft tail or awn.

5. Vincetoxic.u.m. Corolla rotate, spreading. Crown a fleshy 5--10-lobed ring or disk.