HELKNIUM TKXUIKOUUM. SI EXDKR-I.EAVF.n SXF.K/.F.VVORT. 39 



ordinary calyx, and appears in tlic form of cliaffy scales. Thus 

 in our genus the pappus (see lower part of Fig. 2) consists of 

 fine, chaffy scales, with a long, awn-like bristle on the tip of 

 each, and this peculiarity it shares Avith Inula. 



As a mark of distinction from other species of Hdcniuvt, we 

 may note that the achenes or seeds, to the top of which the pap- 

 pus is affixed, are covered with silky hair in our plant (also 

 shown considerably enlarged in Fig. 2), while they are smooth 

 in some other species. All of the species of the genus have a 

 five-cleft corolla, like the H. icniiifoUum, with the exception of a 

 single one, in which the corolla is four-cleft. It is also worth 

 noting that the leaves of all the species growing in the United 

 States are decurrent, that is to say, they extend down along the 

 stem. Even in our very narrow-leaved //. tcnuifoliiun this pe- 

 culiarity exists, although it is so slight that it cannot be shown 

 in a drawing. These very narrow leaves furnish the chief char- 

 acteristic of our species. 



The botanical name of the crenus Hclcniuni is connected with 



o 



Greek history. It is said that the fair but frail Helen, the elop- 

 ing wife of Menelaus, for whose sake the siege of Troy was 

 undertaken, was a cultivator of flowers, and that in her col- 

 lection she had a plant which would destroy serpents. The 

 name of the plant mentioned as Hclciiiiim by Pliny is supposed 

 to have been suggested by this story. Another version Is that 

 the original Helcnium sprang from the tears shed by Helena; 

 and the floral emblematists have therefore made this plant the 

 representative of tears. 



The common name of Hclciilum is '' American Sneezewort," 

 a name which has been o-iven to it because, if reduced to a drv 

 powder, it induces seneezing, like the Achillea of Europe. JIclc- 

 7iiu))i tcuuifoliuni is therefore the " Slender-Leaved Sneezewort." 



Our species, as well as its relative, the //. autuDiualc, has 

 made a name for itself in pharmacy. Dr. J. M. Bigelow, a well- 

 known botanist and distinguished ph\siclan, read a \aluable 

 paper on its virtues before the Detroit ^Academy of Medicine, in 



