462 SYNGENESIA— POLYG.-SUPERF. Achillea. 



Dracunculus pratensis, serrato folio. Bauh. Pin. 98. 

 Sneeze-wort. Petiv.H. Brit.t.lO.f.S. 



In wet hedges and thickets, or about the banks of rivers. 



Perennial. July, August. 



Root creeping widely, difficult of extirpation where the soil is 

 moist. Stems upright, about 2 feet high, angular, smooth, hol- 

 low, leafy, with small axillary rudiments of branches ; corym- 

 bose at the top. Leaves sessile, linear, or slightly lanceolate, 

 acute, closely, very minutely and sharply serrated, with bristly 

 teeth ; smooth on both sides, of a dark somewhat glaucous 

 green. FL milk-white in the disk as well as radius, larger than 

 in most of their genus, and with a greater number of ligulate 

 florets. A double variety, whose disk consists entirely of such, 

 is frequent in country gardens. Cal. rather hemispherical. Seeds 

 compressed, dilated at the edges, but not crowned at the top. 



The whole plant has a pungent flavour, provoking a flow of saliva, 

 and this flavour perhaps renders it acceptable, as Schreber as- 

 serts, to sheep, who delight occasionally in saltish food. The 

 sneezing, caused by the dried and powdered leaves, is rather 

 owing to their little sharp marginal prickles. 



2. A. serrata. Serrated Yarrow. 



Leaves linear-lanceolate, sessile, downy, deeply serrated ; 

 laciniated at the base. Flowers almost simply corym- 

 bose. 



A. serrata. Betx. Ohs.fasc. 2. 25. JVilld. Sp. PI. v. 3. 2 1 94. Comp. 



ed. 4. 140. Engl. Bat. V. 36. t. 2531. 

 Dracunculus alpinus, Agerati foliis incanis. Rail Hist. v. 1. 344. 



In mountainous limestone countries, rare. 



Not far from Matlock, Derbyshire. Mr. Rupp and Mr. Williams. 

 Engl, Bat. 



Perennial. August. 



Root fibrous, or somewhat creeping. Stem about 18 inches high, 

 round, downy, leafy, with axillary leafy tufts, as in the preceding. 

 Leaves linear-lanceolate, downy, bluntish, sharply and strongly 

 serrated ; pinnatifid, spreading, and clasping the stem, at their 

 base. Corymbs simple or slightly compound, leafy, with downy 

 stalks. Fl. iew, of a yellowish white, or bufl^-colour, not half 

 the size of the foregoing, their disk much narrower in propor- 

 tion. Whole herb with a powerful aromatic scent and bitter 

 flavour, somewhat like Tansy, but agreeing more with A. Age- 

 ratum, often preserved in country gardens. The latter however 

 has differently shaped leaves, and very abundant, quite yellow 

 flowers, not a fifth part so large as those of the plant before us. 



I have seen no Swiss specimens answerable to this species. It is 

 certainly not the y of Haller's n. 11 7, figured in Boccone's Mu- 



