ANTE^KAEIA. 137 



drugs, Assafoetida,* Opoponax, Bdellium, Gum Galbanum, and the 

 poisonous Conium, Cicuta, Fools-Parsley, etc., which all should know 

 in order to avoid. 



The Record. For tablet and fig. of Cicuta, see Appendix. 

 Scientific Terms. Commissure. Vittse. 



XXXV. THE MOUSE-EAR EVERLASTING. 



Description. These plants are among the earliest and 

 oddest of the creations of Spring. On the sterile knolls of 

 old pastures, and along the borders of the woods, you will 

 find them already lifting their woolly heads when the grass 

 first changes to green. Few plants are more unsightly, but 

 being the heralds of returning Spring, the earliest represent- 

 atives of the grandest of all the Orders, and moreover every- 

 where present, they make an undeniable claim upon our 

 attention. 



Analysis. The ffioot is perennial, and produces up- 

 right flowering stems, together with prostrate runners or 

 stolons like the Strawberry plant. All the herbage is whit- 

 ened by a silky wool. 



The Z/eaves are thickish, smoothish above when old, 

 entire ; the radical obovate or oval-spatulate (like an apothe- 

 cary's spatula, or broader), petiolate ; the cauline much 

 smaller, linear-oblong, sessile. On the stolons (runners, 

 p. 97), the upper leaves are the larger. 



The Stems are about a span in height, and scape-like in 

 consequence of the diminished upper leaves. 



The Flowers are small, and collected in heads which are 

 again assembled in clusters forming a dense terminal group. 

 They are dioecious, that is, all staminate ( $ ) or sterile in 



* Assafoetida is so much relished by the Brahmins of India that they term it 

 " food for the gods." 



