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Green-Flowered Milkweed

Asclepias verticillata. Milkweed Family.

Stem.--Slender; very leafy to the summit. Leaves.--Very narrow; from three to six in a whorl. Flowers.--Greenish-white; in small clusters at the summit and along the sides of the stem. Fruit.--Two erect pods, one often stunted. This species is one commonly found on dry uplands, especially southward, with flowers resembling in structure those of the other milkweeds. GROUNDSEL TREE. Baccharis halimifolia. Composite Family.

A shrub from six to twelve feet high. Leaves.--Somewhat ovate and wedge-shaped; coarsely toothed, or the upper entire. Flower-heads.--Whitish or yellowish; composed of unisexual tubular flowers; the stamens and pistils occurring on different plants.

Some October day, as we pick our way through the salt marshes which lie back of the beach, we may spy in the distance a thicket which looks as though composed of such white-flowered shrubs as belong to June. Hastening to the spot we discover that the silky-tufted seeds of the female groundsel-tree are responsible for our surprise. The shrub is much more noticeable and effective at this season than when-a few weeks previous--it was covered with its small white or yellowish flower-heads.