iV8 COMJPOStt^ 



Kreuzpfianze ; the Dutch, Kruikskruid ; the Spanish, Hierhe cand ; the 

 Italians, Senecione ; the Russians, Krestoivnik. 



2. Stinking Groundsel {S. viscdsus). — Ray rolled back; leaves pinnatifid, 

 clammy, and hairy ; scales of the involucre loose, hairy ; stem branching, 

 spreading ; annual. This is a somev/hat local plant, occurring on chalky or 

 gravelly soils, and bearing dull yellow flowers in July and August. Its 

 stem is one or two feet high, and the species is remarkable for its clammy 

 hairs and most disagreeable odour. 



3. Mountain Groundsel (*S'. sylv(ilicus).—Tl(iy rolled back, sometimes 

 absent ; leaves sessile, pinnatifid, lobed and toothed, often eared at the base ; 

 involucre downy, smooth ; stem erect, straight ; annual. This is a common 

 plant on gravelly places, rendered very distinct from the last by its larger 

 size, as well as by the paler colour of the leaves, which are often quite hoary, 

 though its odour is similarly unpleasant. It bears conical heads of dull yellow 

 flowers, on a stem one or two feet high, from July to September. 



* * Heads with a spreading ray ; leaves pinnatifid. 



4. Inelegant Ragwort (»S'. squdlidus). — Ray spreading; flowers large; 

 leaves smooth, pinnatifid, with distant oblong and toothed segments ; involucre 

 smooth, its outer scales few and small ; fruit silky ; annual. This is a very 

 handsome plant, found on walls and rubbish at Bideford, Devon, and on walls 

 in and about Oxford, Warwick and Cork. It is a very marked species, but 

 is not truly wild, having been introduced from the Continent. The much- 

 branched stem is leafy and smooth, the heads of flowers large, of golden 

 yellow, and few in number, expanding from June to November, and having 

 many scattered awl-shaped bracts just beloAv them. 



5. Hoary Ragwort {S. tenuif6Uiis).—'Raj spreading; leaves closely 

 pinnatifid, pale and downy beneath ; stem erect, cottony ; fruit hairy ; 

 perennial. This plant grows, though by no means frequently, on chalky 

 soils, in hedges, and by roadsides. It sends up numerous stems from the 

 same root, all covered with loose, cottony down ; its leaves are very regularly 

 divided, their margins slightly rolled back. The stem is about two feet high, 

 and angular. The yellow flowers appear in July and August, and the root 

 creeps far into the soil. 



6. Common Ragwort iS.jacohcea). — Ray spreading; leaves lyre-shaped, 

 twice pinnatifid ; segments smooth, toothed ; stem erect ; fruit of the disk 

 hairy, those of the ray smooth ; involucre hemispherical ; perennial. 

 Everyone knows the tall plant with its clusters of handsome golden flowers, 

 which from June to October, gleam on waste places or meadows. The 

 blossoms have both disk and ray of a deep yellow colour ; each one in the 

 cluster being larger than a daisy, and the whole standing on a stem two or 

 three feet high, they form a striking feature on the landscape, Notwith- 

 standino- its luxuriant beauty, it is a great annoyance to the owner of the 

 pasture land, for it grows on all soils, and is even more abundant in some 

 other countries than in ours. In Kamtschatka it is ever3nvhere one of the 

 most common plants. It has a fleshy root, of a disagreeable odour ; and the 

 whole plant has, especially if bruised, an unpleasant scent. Hence, in Scot- 

 land, it is commonly known by the name of Stinking Willie. Its stem is 



