COMiPOUND FLOWERS 183 



and pointed ; ray nearly twice the length of the disk ; fruit hairy ; perennial. 

 This is a rare species, found on cliffs and salt marshes in the south of England. 

 It is easily distinguished from any other native plant by its fleshy leaves 

 and yellow flowers, which expand in July and August. The stem is about 

 a foot high, a little branched at the summit, with a single flower on each 

 branch. In cases where this plant occurs, it is often used as a pickle ; and 

 the young shoots are sometimes even sent to the London markets, and sold 

 as the veritable Samphire, to which, however, it is very inferior, though in 

 its young state bearing some resemblance to it. 



4. Willow-leaved Inula (/. salicina). — Leaves rigid, the upper slender- 

 oblong, eared and stalkless ; the lower ones lance-shaped, toothed and fringed ; 

 smooth above, somewhat hairy beneath. Heads solitary, an inch and a half 

 across ; involucral bracts slender, fringed, the outer row leafy ; flowers yellow, 

 with slender rays. Fruit round, smooth, with dirty-white pappus. This 

 perennial species, which occurs throughout Continental Europe, is only known 

 in the British Islands from Lough Dearg, Galway. It has a leafy stem from 

 a foot to a foot and a half high, and it flowers in July and August. 



42. Flea-bane (Pulicdria). 



1. Common Flea-bane (P. dysenUrica). — Leaves oblong, heart-shaped 

 or arrow-shaped, and clasping at the base, and, as well as the stem, downy ; 

 scales of the involucre bristly ; ray twice as long as the disk ; fruit angular ; 

 outer pappus waved and cup-like ; perennial. Few of the streams of England 

 which are gay during summer with bright flowers, are destitute of the golden 

 marigold-like blossoms of this plant. On the moist margins of brooks 

 and rivers, on wet bogs, and even along roadside wastes, it is plentiful from 

 July to September, growing often in large masses : but in Scotland it is 

 a rare flower, nor is it general in Ireland. The stem is one or two feet high, 

 and is conspicuous among the emerald grasses by the contrast of its wrinkled 

 foliage, Avhich is of a dull whitish uniform green colour, and which, when 

 bruised, is said to have the odour of smoke, though to us it seems to have 

 that of soap. Its juice is saline, bitter, and astringent. As its specific name 

 indicates, it was formerly used in the cure of dysentery. It was celebrated 

 by Linnaeus as having proved a valuable medicine in the Russian army, and 

 is used occasionally in this country as a tonic. Haller, however, speaks con- 

 temptuously of the medical properties of the plant, because, he says, it abounds, 

 in earthy matter. Our old writers, who called it Middle Flea-bane, believed 

 that if burnt in any place frequented by insects, these intruders would certainly 

 be expelled ; and Forskhal says that the Arabs called it Fuira ejub, or Job's 

 Tears, from the belief that Job used this plant to cure himself of his painful 

 maladies, during the season of his affliction. Few, if any, animals will eat 

 the herb. Mr. Baxter mentions that Saussure kept a plant of this species for 

 six months in the vacuum of an air-pump, without any apparent effect. It 

 was then placed in the light, but in such a manner as not to receive the sun's 

 direct rays, as it withered if even a small degree of sunshine reached it. It 

 also grew equally well in an atmosphere of nitrogen gas and in an atmosphere 

 of common air, though the former entirely destroys life in most plants. 



2. Small Flea-bane {P. vulgaris). — Leaves lanceolate, wavy, htiiry, 



