GAMOPETAL/ 139 
The capitulum includes sixty to eighty florets with 
a fairly long tube and short throat, so that honey is 
easily accessible. 
As the flower is not conspicuous it is not visited by 
many insects except flies. Therefore it is usually self- 
pollinated. 
Hairs at the tip of the style sweep the pollen out, 
and it remains partly on the edge of the stigmas, 
partly falling on the under surface when they separate. 
The achenes being provided with pappus are blown 
away in parachute fashion by the wind. 
Groundsel is called also Birdseed, Chickenweed, 
Grinning Swallow, Grinsel, Grunsel, Grundsel, 
Simson, Swichen. 
In the Highlands it was employed by the Scotch 
in former days as a remedy for the Evil Eye. And 
in equally superstitious days it was regarded as an 
effective cure for ague. So valuable was it considered 
that in the fifteenth century it was cultivated. 
Grinning Swallow is a corruption for Groundsel in 
Scotland. 
STINKING MAYWEED (Anthemuis cotula). 
This common plant, so much associated with 
cultivated land, is found in most parts of the country 
suited for agricultural operations, but is absent 
apparently from some parts of Wales, and the hilly 
tracts of Scotland also, which are in the main given 
up to heaths and moors. In the north of England, 
however, it is rarer than in some parts of Great 
