COMPOUND FLOWEKS 167 



4. Sea Wormwood (A. marUima). — Upper leaves pinnatifid, lower 

 ones twice pinnate, downy on both sides ; heads racemed, oblong — in one 

 form the racemes are drooping, in another variety they are erect ; perennial. 

 Those who live near the sea or salt rivers, and are accustomed to roam over 

 the salt marshes in the neighbourhood, well know this plant as the one which 

 gives a grey tint to the soil. Sometimes it grows on these places only in 

 patches, but in some salt marshes it extends over a great part of the surface, 

 and sends up an odour so strong and so like that of the garden southern- 

 wood, that one cannot mistake its affinity. It is one of the plants which the 

 botanist terms social, because never found growing singlj'^, but always in 

 numbers. Everyone who glances around a meadow, and at the hedges that 

 bound it, or the streams which diversify it, will see that there are plants 

 which always grow in masses, and thus give a peculiar aspect to the vegeta- 

 tion. Some are pre-eminently social, like the gi'asses of the meadow, or the 

 reeds which border the stream, or the thick bog moss {Sphdgimm palustre) 

 which forms a turfy carpet among the waters of the soft ground, or that 

 moorland moss, the glaucous dicranum, which in autumn grows in turfy 

 patches on the soil. This social growth of plants generally contributes largely 

 to the beauty of the landscape, though there are cases, as in lands covered 

 with a vast extent of heather, where at some seasons of the year it may 

 pi-oduce a monotonous and dreary aspect. It is, however, a circumstance of 

 great importance to the welfare of man, enabling him the more readily to 

 cultivate plants in masses ; and the glowing fields of ripening corn in summer, 

 as well as the emerald meads of spring giving their beauty and fertility to 

 the landscape, attest the value of the social growth of plants. 



The Sea Wormwood is rare in Scotland, but very general in marshes in 

 England, abounding sometimes on the shores of rivers, as on those of the 

 Medway in Kent. It has greenish flowers from July to September, on a stem 

 about a foot high, whole masses of the plant being of one uniform grey -green 

 hue. A plant called Bluish Sea Wormwood {A. cceruh'scens), which has hoary 

 leaves, the upper ones undivided, the lower ones lobed, is described as having 

 been found, some years since, near Boston in Lincolnshire, and at Portsmouth ; 

 but this was probably only a variety of A. maritima. The French call the 

 Wormwood L Absinthe; the Germans, Wermuth ; the Dutch Ahem; the 

 Italians, Assenzio ; the Russians, Polin. In Nepal, Wormwood was brought 

 to Dr. Hooker, to form a couch for his night's repose. 



29. Hemp Agrimony {Eupaturium). 



Common Hemp Agrimony (E. canndbinum). — Leaves opposite, 

 slightly stalked, downy, 3 — 5-cleft, deeply serrated, the middle segment 

 the largest ; flowers terminal, in corymbs ; perennial. This plant is very 

 common on the borders of r'ivers, in moist woods, and other damp places ; 

 also on sea-cliff's. It is a tall and conspicuous, but not handsome plant, the 

 foliage being of a dull dusty-looking green, and the dense clusters of small 

 flesh-coloured flowers are also of a dingy hue. These appear in July and 

 August, and are very extensively patronised by the butterflies known as 

 Painted Ladies, Red Admirals, and Peacocks, who may be found in suitable 

 localities to swarm upon them. The flowers are succeeded by the tiifts of 



