236 HEtENnriW. No. 47. 



Flowers corymbose^ golden yellow^ large, one or two 

 inches in diameter. Peduncles axillary, uniflore, 

 with one oval lanceolate bract, clavate or thicker 

 upwards. Perianths with many unequal linear ac«te 

 segments. Phoranthe semiglobose, with chaffs near 

 the .rays, lanceolate. Rays from five to tw^entyi 

 spreading flat, or sometimes rather reflexed, shape 

 cuneate, end broad trilobe, middle lobe often smaller. 

 Disk greenish yellow convex, florets small crowded 

 five cleft, with syngenesious stamina, a bifid style, 

 oblong germ, pappus formed by three to five chaffs 

 subulate £pnd awned. 



Locality — It grows all over the .United States, 

 and from Canada to Texas and Florida, in wet mea- 

 dows, and Savannas, damp fields, overflowed grounds, 



banlis of streams, &c. 



HISTORY — Linn^us has employed the specific 



name of the Inula helenium or Elecampane as a 

 generic one in this instance, owing to a faint resem- 

 blance. The Helenium was said by the Greeks to 

 have sprung from the tears of the fair Helen, This 

 was once a unique species, but now several others are 

 added, which grow in the Southern States. It be- 



eat Order of Radiax^, where it is the 

 type of a small family the Helenides y-lAnn^ws puts 

 it in his Syngenesia suj}erjlua. 



It is a fine plant, rather ornamental, and adorning 

 in the fall the meadows with its golden blossoms, ap- 

 pearing from September to November. The Cattle 

 do not touch it. The varieties are 1. J^illosaj 2. Pu- 

 mila, 3. Prealta^ &c. 



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