258 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



50. Elecampane — Inula Helenium. Root perennial, thick and elongated. Stem stout, 

 three to six feet high. Radical leaves one to three feet long, ovate, petiolate; stem leaves 

 smaller, partly clasping the stem. Heads very large, yellow, many flowered, with a 

 single row of very narrow rays. 



A coarse European plant, partly naturalized, common along 

 road-sides and in pastures. The roots of the Elecampane possess 

 well known medicinal properties, and are thought to be beneficial 

 in Dyspepsia an,d Chronic Catarrh. The presence of this plant 

 gives to one's premises a very slovenly appearance. 



51. Bitter-weed. -Rag-weed. -Roman Wormwood — Ambrosia arte- 

 misia^olia. A well known annual plant, with twice pinnalifid 

 leaves. It is very common in gardens, cultivated grounds, and 

 waste places. Frequently it springs up in great abundance among 

 the stubble after a crop of grain. " If the land be good, the plant 

 seems to be smothered or choked out the next season by the crop 

 of clover and timothy." — (Darlington.) This plant is sometimes 

 called Hog-weed. Ambrosia trifida, a coarse native weed, is often 

 found in waste places. 



52. Cocklebub.-Clotbur — Xanthium Strumarium. Annual. Stem two to three feet 

 high, bristly. Flowers few together, terminal, globular, green. Pistillate flowers in sessile 

 axillary tufts. Fruit, a hard two-celled bur, nearly an inch long, covered with stiff", 

 hooked prickles. 



A coarse, vile weed, found in barn-yards and waste places. The 

 burs often adhere to the wool of sheep. It is easily subdued by 

 -cultivation. 



53. Thorny Clotbur — Xanthium spinosum. Annual. Stem one to thrso feet high, with 

 slender, yellow, three-parted spines at the base of the leaves. Leaves one to three in- 

 ches long, white-downy beneath. Sterile flowers in the upper axils of the leaves, fertile 

 ■in the lower. 



This plant is said to be found in this State, probably in the 

 -Southern part, and not far from the sea-shore. Darlington, in 

 speaking of this plant says: "It may frequently be seen along the 

 sidewalks and waste places in the suburbs of some of our northern 

 seaport towns, and is a vile nuisance wherever found. I have 

 understood that the authorities of one of our cities, a few years 

 since, enacted an ordinance against the plant, in which enactment 

 it was denounced by the name of the Canada Thistle ! The mis- 

 nomer probably did not impair the efficiency of the ordinance; yet 

 I cannot help thinking it would be decidedly preferable that both 

 lawgivers and farmers should avoid confounding objects which are 

 essentially distinct, and learn to designate even weeds by their 

 proper names." Like most introduced plants, this intruder is 



