308 THE DAISY FAMILY. 



32. Hard-heads — [Centauria nigra.) 

 On grassy hedgebanks, and at the edges of dry fields and old 

 pastures, common everywhere. Fl. July — October. 



E. B. iv. 278. 

 Eemarkable for the absence of the coronet usually found in the Centaureas, 

 and for the dark brown colour, amounting almost to blackness, of the basket, the 

 scales of which are curiously fringed. Few plants last longer in bloom. In 

 October they blend their crimson with the blue of the Campanula, and console 

 the autumn to its close. The stems are remarkable for their toughness. 



III.— FLOWERS DAISY-FORM— (Sub-family GorymUferce.) 



(The flowers of the common groundsel and of several other species included in 

 the Corymbifera, consist of tubular florets alone, and hence would seem more 

 appropriately placed among the Cynarocephalw. But, as we have before had 

 occasion to observe, in classing plants according to their natural affinities, single 

 characters are subordinate to the mass of characters, and such exceptions as those 

 before us do not falsify the general rule. The affinities of the rayless Corymbifers 

 are palpably with the rayed ones, and not at all with the Cynaroeephala.) 



33. Common Bidens — {Bidens cernua.) 

 Edges of ponds and ditches, usually quite in the water, and forming 

 dense patches of a yellowish -green hue, common. Abundant in the 

 pond by Arden Hall. Fl. July — September. Annual. 

 Curtis, i. 200; E. B. xvi. 1114. 



34. Three-lobed Bidens — {Bidens tripartita.) 

 Waste wet places, and on the edges of ponds, but not like the 

 preceding, actually in the water. Found also in cultivated fields 

 where the soil is moist. Like the pimpernel and many others, this 

 plant is fond of sauntering into town, and lodging in gardens for a 

 year or two, after which it usually disappears. Common about Stock- 

 port and Heaton Norris. Fl. July, August. Annual. 



Curtis, ii. .277 ; E. B. xvi. 1113 ; Baxter, vi. 446. 



35. Lilac Hemp-wort — {Eupatorium catmdbinum.) 

 Banks of rivers and in wet woods and doughs, a great lover of the 

 shade, and not uncommon. Mere Clough ; Ashley meadows ; Hale 

 Moss. Crooklcy Wood, near Stockport, plentiful. Fl. July, August. 

 E. B. vi. 428 ; Baxter, iii. 178. 

 The only British Composite with Howers not yellow, and the leaves opposite. 

 Remarkable also, like the rest of its genus, for the great length of the deeply- 

 cloven styles. 



