c 



146 QAMOPETALOUS EXOOENS 



Obs. This worthless little weed is extensively naturalized among 

 us ; and may be readily distinguished from the Wild Chamomile, by 

 its strong repulsive odor. 



208. Atf'THEMIS, L. 



[Gr. Anthemon, a flower ; from the number it produces.] 

 Heads many-flowered ; ray-florets pistillate. Involucre campanulate. 

 Akenes terete, or obtusely 4-corned; pappus none, or a minute 

 crown. Receptacle conical, with membranaceous chaff among the 

 florets. Annuals, or perennials: sometimes aromatic; leaves bipin- 

 nately dissected ; heads with yellow disks, and white rays. 



1. A. arvensis, L. Stem erect,, hairy ; chaff of the receptacle lance- 

 olate, cuspidate, longer than the florets ; pappus a very short 

 crown-form margin. 

 FIELD ANTHEMIS. Wild Chamomile. 



Annual; nearly inodorous. Stem 9 to 15 inches high, etriate, branched. 

 Leaves % of an inch to an inch and a half long, clothed with cinereous hairs ; seg- 

 ments flat, lance-linear, acute ; petioles about half an inch in length. Involucral 

 scales with the margins and^apex scarious and rather tawny. 

 Sab. Cultivated grounds. Nat. of Europe. Fl. June. Fr. Aug. 



;J. A. NOB'ILIS, L, Stems decumbent, spreading, villous ; chaff of 

 the receptacle lanceolate, not cuspidate, shorter than the florets ; 

 pappus nearly obsolete. 

 NOBLE ANTHEMIS. Garden Chamomile. 



Perennial ; aromatic. Stem 4 to 8 or 10 inches long, branching from the base, 

 leafy. Leaves 1 to 2 inches long, subsessile; segments subulate. Heads of flowers 

 rather large ; disk convex, finally conical ; rays elliptic-oblong, finally reflexed. 

 Hob. Gardens. Nat. of Europe. Fl. July. Fr. Sept. 



Obs. The whole herb is a fine aromatic bitter, -particularly the 

 heads of flowers. It is an old and still prevalent opinion, that this 

 plant thrives better for being trampled upon, or kept prostrate, 

 whence it was popularly called ^the Whig Plant" during the revo- 

 lutionary contest, in the United States. The notion is thus inciden- 

 tally alluded to, by SHAKSPEARE, in the first part of King Henry 

 IV. " For though the Camomile, the more it is trodden on the 

 faster it grows yet youth, the more it is wasted the sooner it 

 wears." 



209. ACHIULITA, L. 



[Named after Achilles; a medical Greek, who first used the plant.] 

 Heads several-flowered ; ray-florets few and short, pistillate ; tube 

 of the disk-florets obcompressed, margined. Involucre obovoid- 

 oblong. Akenes obcompressed, oblong, somewhat margined; pap- 

 pus none. Receptacle small, flattish, chaffy. Perennials: leaves 

 alternate, often pinnatifidly dissected; heads small, in flat dense 

 corymbs. 



1. A. Mittefblium, L. Stem mostly simple ; leaves bipinnatifid, the 

 segments linear, incised-serrate ; rays 4 or 5, roundish-obovate. 

 THOUSAND-LEAF ACHILLEA. Yarrow. Milfoil. 



Stem 2 to 3 feet high, sulcate-striate, hairy and somewhat lanuginous, leafy. 

 Leaves 2 or 3 to 6 inches long the radical ones often still longer, subsessile, 



