N. ORD.—COMPOSIT&. 82 
Tribe.—SENECIONIDEA. 
GENUS.—AMBROSI A,* TOURN. 
SEX. SYST.—MONCECIA PENTANDRIA. 
AMBROSIA 
ARTEMISIAFOLIA, 
RAG -WEED. 
SYN.—AMBROSIA ARTIMISIZIFOLIA, LINN.; A. ELATIOR, LINN.; A. 
ABSYNTHIFOLIA AND PANICULATA, MICHX.; A. HETEROPHYLLA, 
MUHL.; IVA MONOPHYLLA, WALT. 
COM. NAMES.—RAG-WEED, ROMAN WORMWOOD, CARROT-WEED, WILD 
OR BASTARD WORMWOOD, HOG-WEED, CONOT-WEED, BITTER- 
WEED; (FR.) AMBROSIE; (GER.) TRAUBENKRAUT. 
A TINCTURE OF THE WHOLE HERB AMBROSIA ARTEMISLA:FOLIA, LINN. 
Description.—This annual, pubescent or hirsute weedy-herb, attains a growth 
of from 1 to 3 feet. Stem erect, at first simple, then paniculately branched. Leaves 
opposite and alternate, thinnish, bipinnatifid, or pinnatifidly parted, those of the 
inflorescence often entire, all smooth above and pale or hoary beneath; dzvzszons 
irregularly pinnatifid or entire. /Zowers unisexual on the same plant. Sterile 
heads numerous, gamophyllous, arranged in centripetal, racemose spikes, all more 
or less recurved-pedicelled and not subtended by bracts; zuvo/ucre truncate, sau- 
cer-shape or campanulate, not costate but indistinctly radiate veined ; 6order irreg- 
ularly 4 to 6 toothed ; corolla obconical, the border 5-toothed ; stamens 5 ; filaments 
short; anthers deltoid, slightly united, their short appendages inflexed; adortive 
style columnar, the apex dilated and penicillate, strongly exserted, Fertile heads 
1 to 3, apetalous, glomerate in the axils of the upper leaves and below the male 
spikes; zzvolucre open, nutlet-like; corolla reduced to a ring around the base of 
the style; s¢yZe bilamellar, exserted? Akenes turgid-ovoid, triangularly compressed, 
short-beaked, and crowned with from 4 to 6 short teeth or spines ; Aappus wanting. 
History and Habitat.—This too-common, truly American weed, is indigenous 
from Nova Scotia to Saskatchewan, Washington Territory, and southward to Bra- 
zil. It habits waste fields, roadsides, and dry places, and blossoms from the latter 
part of July to October. 
The former uses 0 
antiseptic emollient fomentation ; 
a substitute for quinine, but not success 
f this plant were but slight, its principal use being as an 
its bitterness caused its use in Maryland as 
fully. J A. Zabriskie, of Closter, N. J., 
* 'Anppocta, ambrosta, the food of the gods; the gods know why! 
