COMPOUND FLOWERS 175 



found on heaths and on gravelly or chalky waste yjlaces in several parts 

 of the kingdom. It is, however, a naturalized, and not an indigenous 

 plant, having been first introduced from Canada into gardens near Paris, 

 whence its downy seeds soon found their way all o\'er France, and afterwards 

 to Sicily, Italy, Belgium, G-ermany, and England. It is a dull-looking plant, 

 with small heads of dingy flowers in July and August ; the florets of the 

 disk being of a yellowish, and those of the ray of a whitish hue, more or less 

 tinged with red. The stem is one or two feet high, much branched, and 

 panicled with numerous flowers. The Flea-bane has the repute of driving 

 away insects ; but the name refers to some exotic species, which by their 

 strong odour annoy, or by their viscid stems and foliage entangle, the insects 

 approaching them. A very powerfully fetid species, E. jMhidcIphicum, is a 

 medicine of some importance in America. Our wild Flea-banes are of little 

 use ; but the ashes, both of this and the following species, yield five or six 

 per cent, of vegetable alkali ; and the latter plant has some active principles. 

 The French call the Flea-bane La Vergerette, and the Germans, Das Scharfe. 

 It is in Holland called Scherp fynsfraal, and in Spain, Olivavdilla. 



2. Blue Flea-bane {E. dcris). — Stem corymbose, branches alternate ; 

 leaves narrow, lanceolate, entire, spreading, lower ones tapering below; 

 ray erect, scarcely longer than the disk ; inner pistillate florets threadlike 

 and numerous ; biennial. This is a local plant, found on heaths and 

 chalky or gravelly waste places. It produces its small flowers in July and 

 August, the florets of the disk being yellowish, and the slender rays of dull 

 bluish-lilac. The stem is about a foot or a foot and a half high, and the 

 whole plant very rough to the touch. The down which invests the seeds 

 after the plant has flowered is of a dull brownish-yellow colour. 



3. Alpine Flea-bane {E. alplnus). — Stem mostly single-flowered; leaves 

 lanceolate, lower ones tapering at the base ; ray spreading, twice as long as 

 the disk ; perennial. This is a plant of Highland rocks, and has a stem 

 from three to five inches in height, the flower with a yellow disk and light 

 purple ray, and the involucre hairy. 



37. Starwort, Michaelmas Daisy {Aster). 



Sea Starwort {A. tripolium). — Stem smooth, corymbose ; leaves 

 narrow, lanceolate, fleshy, smooth ; scales of the involucre lanceolate, blunt, 

 membranous, overlapping each other ; perennial. During the months of 

 July, August, and September, the Michaelmas Daisy is a common ornament 

 of the dreary salt-marsh adjoining sea or river. Far as eye can see that flat 

 greensward is stretched, little varied either in hue or form by the plants 

 growing upon it. At this season, these lilac flowers, with their golden 

 centres, are very conspicuous, standing up on a hollow, erect, leafj^, succulent 

 pale-green stem, one or two feet high. The plant is essentially one of a 

 saline soil, growing sometimes on sea-clifFs, and often on the muddy shore 

 either of the sea or of rivers. It has been found on the banks of the Thames, 

 a little above high water, near Richmond and Kew ; and the author once 

 found it on a bank on Strood Hill, in Kent, at a distance of more than a 

 mile from the salt river Medway ; but it is not often found so far inland. 

 Dr. Withering says that the succulent leaves and stems of the plant are not 



