ASCLEPIAS, or SWALLOW-WORT, a genus of plants, the type of the natural order asclepiadacem. The corolla is wheel-shaped and reflexed; the coronet fleshy, and each of its hooded tips has The species are generally upright— seldom climbing and twining —hertrateous plants with opposite, whorled, or leaves. They are mostly American. The flowers are disposed in simple umbels between the leaf-stalks. A. syriaca, Syrian or Virginian swallow-wort, sometimes called Virginian silk, appears to be a native of North America. and not of Syria, as was supposed. It is frequently cultivated in flower-gardens. It has an unbranched stem 4 to 7 ft. high; thick, ovate leaves, covered with a grayish down on the under side; and 'large, stalked, nodding umbels of many dull red flowers, which diffuse a strong and sweetish odor. The whole plant is full of an acrid white milk, which contains caoutchouc. The young shoots are eaten in North America like asparagus, as those of A. stipitacea are in Arabia. A brown well-tasted sugar is prepared in Canada from the flowers; and the silk-like down of the seeds has been used for the manufacture of textile fabrics, either alone, or along with wool or silk, but is more frequently employed for the preparation of wadding.
and for stuffing mattresses and pillows. The plant appears, however, to be chiefly valuable for the fiber of its stalks, which is used for the manufacture of thread, cloth, ropes, nets, etc., in many parts of North America, and upon account of which it has been recommended for general cultivation in Europe. The fiber is said to he of very superior quality. The plant rapidly extends by its creeping roots, and readily becomes a weed, where it has been introduced.— The roots of several other North American species are used as diaphoreties and expectorants, as A. incarnata, A. tuberosa, etc. The latter is a very ornamental garden-flower, and is called butterfly weed and pleurisy root in the United States, where it is frequent on stony and sandy grounds. A. curamo vka is called wild ipecacuanha in the West Indies, and a decoction of it is used by the negroes as an emetic and purgative.