262 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



from Europe. Escaped from cultivation, assuming the character 

 of a weed in many places. It was formerly much cultivated for 

 its aromatic and tonic qualities. 



61. Poverty-weed — Everlasting — Gnaphalium decurrens. Perennial. Stem woolly, 

 stout, one to two feet high, branched. Leaven linear-lanceolate, sessile, with the two 

 edges continued down the stem (decurrent). Jfeads numerous. Ffcwer* whitish . Rays 

 none. 



A native, homely weed, common in pastures and by the wayside. 

 G. polycephalum, is an annual, common with the last ; the leaves 

 are not decurrent, and the plant has a strong agreeable odor. G. 

 uliginosum, or Low cud-weed, is a small spreading species, covered 

 with whitish down, common in moist ditches and low grounds by 

 the roadsides. Root annual. 



62. Everlasting — Pearly Everlasting — Antennaria margaritacea. Perennial. Stem 

 one to two feet high, leafy, clothed with white and cotton-like down. Leaves very nar- 

 row, taper-pointed. Heads many flowered, surrounded with numerous pearly-white and 

 opaque scales. Flowers yellowish. • Rays none. 



This plant is very abundant in dry pastures and by the roadsides. 

 It is collected for winter boquets, for the flowers are fadeless, or, 

 as the name implies, everlasting. Plantain-leaved Everlasting or 

 MoDSE-EAB, is a smaller species, flowering in early spring ; common 

 on sterile knolls in pastures and fields. The heads are somewhat 

 fragrant, and have a peculiar taste, thought by some to resemble 

 that of brown-bread. 



63. Fire-weed — Erechthites hieracifolia. Annual. (S^cto one to six feet high, grooved, 

 succulent and tender when young. Leaves three to eight inches long, toothed. Heads 

 numerous, many flowered. Rays none. 



This plant is almost always abundant in newly cleared districts, 

 especially where the ground has been burned over, whence the 

 name fire-weed. When bruised the plant exhales a strong and 

 disagreeable odor. 



64. Golden Ragwort — Squaw-weed — Senccio aureus. Root perennial. Stevn one to 

 two feet high, branched, striate. Leaves one to three inches long, varying in form on the 

 different varieties; petioles, or leaf-stalks of the radical leaves one to seven inches long; 

 stem leaves sessile or partly clasping. Heads many flowered, with yellow rays. 



The Golden rag-wort is often found in abundance in low meadows. 

 It is a worthless though probably not a troublesome weed. There 

 are many varieties. 



65. Common Thistle — Cirsium lanceolatum. Altogether too com- 

 mon to need a description. Tlio flowers are purple in erect terminal 

 heads which are about an inch in diameter. The plant is sometimes 

 called Bull Thistle. It is an introduced plant from Europe, very 



