460 



. 



2. SENECIO ELEGANS. 



DOUBLE PURPLE GROUNDSEL. 



THIS genus contains plants of the herbaceous, annual, and pe- 

 rennial kinds. 



It belongs to the class and order Syngenesia Polygamia Superfiua, 

 and ranks in the natural order of Composite Discoidea. 



The characters are: that the calyx is common calycled, conical, 

 truncate: scales awl-shaped, very many, parallel in a cylinder con- 

 tracted above, contiguous, equal, fewer covering the base imbricate- 

 wise, the tops mortised : the corolla compound, higher than the ca- 

 lyx: corollets hermaphrodite, tubular, numerous in the disk: females 

 ligulate in the ray, if any present: proper in the hermaphrodites 

 funnel-form: border reflex, five-cleft: in the females, if any, oblong, 

 obscurely three-toothed : the stamina in the hermaphrodites, fila- 

 ments five, capillary, very small: anther cylindric, tubular: the pis- 

 tillum in both: germ ovate: style filiform, length of the stamens; 

 stigmas two, oblong, revolute: there is no pericarpium: calyx coni- 

 cal, converging: the seeds in the hermaphrodites solitary, ovate: 

 pappus capillary, long; in the females very like the hermaphrodites: 

 the receptacles naked, flat. 



The species cultivated are: 1. S. hieracifolius, Hieracium-leaved 

 Groundsel; 2. S. Pseudo-China, Chinese Grounsel; 3. S. he/status, 

 Spleenwort-leaved Groundsel ; 4. S. elegans, Elegant Groundsel, or 

 Purple Jacobaea. 



The first is an annual plant, with a round, channelled, hairy 

 stalk, rising three feet high: the flowers in a state of terminating um- 

 bel, composed of dirty-white florets. It is a native of North Ame- 

 rica, flowering in August. 



The second species has a perennial root, composed of some thick 



