196 COMPOSITE— COMPOUND FLOWERS 



tjlie j)lant, which is as abundant on many of the fields of the Continent as on 

 ours, has several names which allude to the warrior whose deeds the ancient 

 poets have recorded. Thus it is the Schqfgarhe of the Germans, the 

 Achillea of the Italians, and the Aquilea of the Spanish. The Dutch term it 

 Duizendhlacl, and the French, besides calling it AcldlUe, know it also as Hcrhe 

 an charpeniier, because its healing powers are fitted to heal the wounds caused 

 by any sharp instrument used by the mechanic. 



4. Woolly Yellow Milfoil, or Yarrow {A. tomentdsa). — Leaves 

 woolly, pinnatifid ; lobes crowded, 2 — 3-cleft ; segments slender, acute ; 

 corymbs repeatedly compound ; scales of the involucre woolly ; perennial. 

 This plant, which grows on several dry hilly pastures in Scotland, has a 

 woody stem about six or eight inches high, prostrate at the base. The 

 flowers expand in August, and both ray and disk are of a golden yellow, 

 growing on much-branched corymbs. The leaves are downy. The small 

 size of this species readily distinguishes it from the others; but there is 

 little doubt that, on the few spots where it occurs, it has escaped from 

 cultivation. 



48. Bur-reed (Xdnthium). 



Broad-leaved Bur-reed (A', strumdrimn). — Stem without spines; 

 loAver leaves heart-shaped, 3-lobed at the base, coarsely toothed ; fruit downy, 

 with two straight beaks, having hooked prickles ; annual. This plant 

 is placed by botanists in an anomalous genus, as not agreeing in character- 

 istics Avith any other of the compound flowers. It can scarcely be said to be 

 even naturalized, though occurring in several places in the south of England, 

 and about Kerry, in Ireland, on waste grounds where the soil is rich and 

 moist. Its stamens and pistils are in separate flowers on the same plant, and 

 the prickly involucres which surround the fertile flowers enlarge and become 

 part of the fruit. Its blossoms expand in August and September, and its 

 greenish flowers are more curious than beautiful. Dioscorides mentions that 

 an infusion of this plant dyes the hair yellow, and though yellow hair has 

 only of late years been admired by us, yet that it was so in earlier days, the 

 poets, from Chaucer to Spenser, abundantly testify. The latter poet thus 

 praises the beauty of one of his heroines : — 



" Her long loose yellow locks, like golden wire, 



Sprinkled with perle and peiling flowers between, 

 Do like a golden mantle her attire." 



At that time it was usual not only to dye the hair yellow, as in the days of 

 Dioscorides, but to give it that tinge by sprinkling over it a yellow powder. 

 This must account for the number of portraits of yellow-haired people which 

 belong to the period of Queen Elizabeth. 



The Bur-reed is also called Lesser Burdock, because in its general habit, 

 leaves, and flowers, it is much like that plant. Some of the exotic species, 

 as the Spiny Bur-reed (A', spindsiim) and the Hedgehog Bur-reed (A', echindtum), 

 are still more like burs than this, and the spiny species is by many thought 

 to be the one referred to by the ancients. The Bur-reed is called in France 

 Lampourde ; in Germany, Spiitzldeite ; in Holland, Kleine Klissen. The 

 Italians term it Lappola minore, and the Portuguese, Bardana menor. 



