238 SENECIO VULGARIS. 



The student of Natural History, however, is not painfully 

 alarmed, even at the presence of weeds ; to him Nature in every 

 form is charming. The coarse-looking and formidable nettle 

 affords him infinite delight ; its devices for seed-scattering, its 

 extraordinary hairs with their reservoirs of poison, are to him 

 objects worthy of close and patient research. The simple beauty 

 of the silvery-petalled Chickweed, with its beautifully carved seeds ; 

 the prolific Spurge, with its remarkable floral structure, are as 

 much worthy of admiration as our choicest exotics. 



AVe speak of Groundsel as a weed ; let me ask, " What is a 

 weed ? " If we turn to our dictionaries we shall be told that a 

 weed is " Any plant of small growth that is useless, noxious, or 

 troublesome." If such is a true definition of the word, our pet 

 canaries will undoubtedly declare that the " Groundsel is not a 

 weed." The word " weed " is from the Anglo-Saxon, " weod," an 

 herb, and under this term the Groundsel may be safely included. 



The Senecio is a genus of plants originally found only in 

 Europe and the southern parts of Asia ; but like many other genera 

 of our wild plants, it follows in the train of civilisation, and 

 wherever Europeans settle, it is soon established amongst the 

 colonists. The seeds are doubtless carried with the grain which is 

 exported for cultivation on foreign soils. 



This genus belongs to the natural order Composifce^ which 

 includes also the Daisy, the Chrysanthemum, the Sun-flower, the 

 Aster, and the Dahlia. This order is divided into three sub- 

 orders, and it is to the first of these — viz., Corymbiferae — that the 

 Senecio belongs. The name of this sub-order is derived from 

 " corynibus,'' a summit, and '' fero,'' to bear, the plants belonging 

 to it having generally a disc of tubular florets in the centre and 

 a ray of strap-shaped florets in the circumference, although the 

 Groundsel is destitute of the latter. 



The order Composite^ is one of the largest and at the same 

 time one of the most important natural families in the vegetable 

 kingdom; it contains more than i,ooo genera and almost 10,000 

 known species. As many as 600 species of Senecio (British and 

 foreign) are known, amongst which are included annual, perennial, 

 and half-shrubby plants. Withering enumerates ten British species. 



