*Common Milkweed.* _Asclepias Cornuti._ Found in meadows and roadsides, from June to August. The large, round, and tough-fibred stalk, which grows from 3 to 4 feet high, has a sticky and milky juice, is minutely downy, and pale green. The leaf is often very large (from 4 to 8 inches long), oval, rounded at both ends, with an entire and somewhat wavy margin, and a large midrib; it is thick in texture, smooth above, but a little downy beneath, and grayish-green in color, the underside being silvery,--the wide midrib is light, or often tinged with dull red. The flower is rather large; the crown is brownish-pink, the lobes light flesh-pink or pale lilac, and the foot-stems are pinkish. The flower-clusters are large, round, and drooping; they spring from the angles of the upper leaves. Though regarded as a “weed” this Milkweed has many attractive features. * * * * * The seed-pods of the Milkweeds are most interesting; rough on the outside, they are beautifully finished within, with a fine, smooth, light lining. The silky plumes of the flat-brown seeds are closely folded together and the seeds lie overlapping like the scales of a fish. The light green outside of the Butterfly-Weed pod, tinged with crimson-tawny, becomes with age a fine tree-trunk gray. In some varieties a likeness to a dove may be found in the inverted pod. [Illustration: COMMON MILKWEED: A. Cornuti.] GENTIAN FAMILY. GENTIANACEÆ. *Fringed Gentian.* _Gentiana crinita._ Found in fields, pastures, and along wayside thickets, frequently where it is damp; coming into bloom late in August and continuing until middle October or later. The stalk, which branches for the flowers, grows usually from 6 inches to 2 feet in height, and is somewhat square near the blossoms, and sometimes twisted; it is grooved, smooth and shining, and light green, tempered with bronze. The leaf is heart-shaped at the base, tapering sharply to a long-pointed tip, slightly creased on the midrib, with an entire margin, and thin smooth texture. In color it is light green. The leaves clasp the stalk in pairs, which occur at right angles to each other. The corolla is a deep vase shape spreading at the top into 4 fringed lobes which curve like shells; of a delicate thin texture, and satin smooth surface, in color an evasive azure, impossible to describe, varying from pale to deep (sometimes reddish tinted), and marked upon the outside with fine lines of darker blue. The 4-parted calyx is pinched into 4 angles at its base, and is a light yellow-green color, its long, sharp tips sometimes bronzy. The flowers are set on short, and long, leafy stems; in groups, or singly.