570 



FIL 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



FI L 



Fig, see Ficus ; and Fig, see Cactus. 



Fig Marigold. See Mesembryunthemum. 



Fig, Pharaoh's. See Ficus fycomonts. 



Figwort. See Scrophularia. 



Filago; a genus of the class Syngenesis, order Polygamia- 

 Necessaria. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : common, of 

 imbricate chaffs, containing in the disk several hermaphro- 

 dite florets; in the circumference, among the lower scales of 

 the calix, solitary female florets. Corolla : hermaphrodite, 

 funnel-form, with a four-cleft erect border ; females, scarcely 

 visible, filiform, very narrow, cloven at the mouth. Stamina, 

 in the hermaphrodite: fikinicnta four, capillary, small, anther 

 cylindric, four-toothed at the top. Pistil: in the hermaphro- 

 dite; germen scarcely any; style simple; stigma acnte, 

 bifid. In the females : germen ovate, largish, depressed ; 

 style filiform; stigma acute, bifid. Pericarp: none. Seeds: 

 in the hermaphrodites none ; in the females obovate, com- 

 pressed, smooth, small ; down none. Receptacle : disks 

 naked, without chaffs, but at the sides there are calicine 

 chaffs, separating the florets. Observe, the above charac- 

 ter is taken from Filago Pygmsea, or Acaulis, which Gart- 

 ner separates under the name of Evax. Filago, Germanica, 

 An~ensis, Montana, and probably other species, agree with 

 t-ach other, and are distinguished from that by the follow- 

 ing character. Calix : common, round, or five-cornered, 

 imbricate; scales ovate-lanceolate,' the outer acute, tomen- 

 tose, the inner shining, coloured, acuminate. Corolla: com- 

 pound ; corollets hermaphrodite, tubular, few in the centre 

 of the disk; females tubular, numerous in the remainder of 

 the disk ; and a few others, almost apetalous among the outer 

 scales of the calix : proper in the hermaphrodites funnel- 

 form, with a four-cleft spreading border; in the females of 

 the disk funnel-form, with a slender tube swelling at the 

 i>ase, and a four-cleft erect border ; in the other females 

 hardly conspicuous, with a very slender tube, and a sharp 

 cloven border. Stamina : in the hermaphrodites ; filamenta 

 four, very short; anther tubular. Pistil: in the hermaphro- 

 dites ; germen small, abortive; style capillary, the length of 

 the border; stigmas two, from upright spreading: females 

 in the disk, have on oblong germen, a capillary style longer 

 than the border, and two spreading stigmas : females within 

 the calix have an oblong germen, a capillary style longer 

 tlian the border, and two long spreading stigmas. Pericarp: 

 none; calix unchanged. Seeds: in the hermaphrodites bar- 

 ren, crowned with down : in the females of the disk oblong, 

 crowned with a short simple down ; in the females within 

 the calix, oblong, naked. Receptacle: naked. ESSENTIAL 

 CHARACTER. Calix: imbricate; female florets among the 

 scales of the calix. Down : none. Receptacle : naked. 

 The Cudweeds are herbs covered with a hoary or cottony 

 down ; the flowers are usually glomerate at the end of the 

 stalk, and are sometimes surrounded by a leafy ring. They 



are of the same natural genus with Gnaphalium. The 



sprcies are, 



i. Filago Acaulis; Pigmy Cudweed. Flowers steinless, 

 sessile ; floral-leaves larger. This is a very small plant, 

 entirely covered with a white woolly nap, growing in a tuft : 

 it has a little bristle-form stem, a line or two, sometimes half 

 an inch, or at most an inch in height, erect, quite simple; 

 leaves mostly close to the ground, longer than the stem and 

 flowers, quite entire, linear; one or two flowers terminate the 

 stem, or are sessile among the leaves ; calix scarcely a line 

 in length ; the scales brown or reddish, brown about the edge, 

 .ash-coloured in the middle; the corollets are rose-coloured, 

 and the central ones yellowish. Cavmiillo?, with a truly 

 laudable zeal, has defended Linneus from the intemperate 



and ill-founded attack of Monsieur Lamarck concerning this 

 plant, and has retorted it upon the assailant. He informs 

 us, that he has found caulescent plants about Madrid, accom- 

 panied by innumerable others absolutely stemless, both 

 flowering, fruiting, and perishing, without any change from 

 one to the other. Willdenow slates this to be the only 

 species of Filago, the rest being Gnaphaliums. Native of 

 the south of Europe, and the Levant : it is found in dried 

 pools of standing water, is annual, and flowers at the end of 

 summer. This plant, together with all of the same geniM, 

 except the last species, are considered as weeds, and never 

 cultivated, except in botanic gardens. They may be propa- 

 gated from seeds sown in the autumn or spring, where they 

 are to remain, and require no culture, except thinning where 

 they may be too close, and to be kept clean from weeds. 



2. Filago Germanica ; Common Cudweed. Panicle dicho- 

 tomous ; flowers rounded, axillary, hirsute; leaves sharp; 

 root annual, spindle-shaped. Several stems rise imme- 

 diately from the root, from six to twelve inches in height, 

 the central one thickest and longest, clothed with numerous, 

 linear-lanceolate, waved, sessile, downy leaves; at the sum- 

 mit a sessile flowering head, beneath which are two or more 

 branches bearing flowers, and these again proliferous. The 

 lower lateral branches overtopping the principal central 

 head, gave rise tq the old name of herba impia, (herb im- 

 pious,) or Wicked Cudweed. Native of most parts of Europe, 

 in barren pastures, corn-fields, and by way-sides; flowering 

 in July and August. It varies with a very simple erect 

 stem, and axillary sessile flowers. This plant is astringent, 

 and a powder or decoction of it has been sometimes given 

 to cattle in the bloody flux; and has been successfully 

 tried in similar complaints of the human body. English 

 farmers formerly gave it to their cattle, to restore the faculty 

 of chewing the cud, whence it acquired the name of Cud- 

 weed. Petiver calls it Childing Cudweed; and Hill, Forked 

 Cudweed. Bruised, and applied to recent wounds, it stops 

 the effusion of blood, and speedily heals them ; and taken 

 inwardly, either in powder or decoction, it not only stops 

 violent purgings, but relieves the whites and other female 

 complaints. 



3. Fiiago Pyramidata; Pyramidal -flowering Cudweed. 

 Stem dichotomous ; one or two inches high ; flowers pyra- 

 midal, five-cornered, axillary ; female floscules serrate ; 

 branches radical, bifid at the top; leaves lanceolate, bluntish, 

 pressed to the stem, quite entire ; calicine scales three or 

 four, terminated by a thread, and between them a female 

 flower, besides six males or imperfect hermaphrodites in the 

 centre. It is probably no more, says Krocker, than a variety 

 of the foregoing species : it differs however from it, in having 

 a more simple stem, with only one branch or two at the end, 

 and more erect; it is also more white and tomentose: the 

 flowers are only at the end in the uppermost fork ; the leaves 

 are more numerous, and pressed close to the stem. It is 

 annual, like the foregoing, and flowers in August. Native 

 of the south of France, Spain, and Silesia. 



4. Filago Montana; Least Cudweed. Stem subdichoto- 

 moits, erect; two to six inches high ; flowers conical, termi- 

 nating, and axillary; root annual; leaves numerous, lanceo- 

 late, sessile, downy, pressed to the stem, three or four line* 

 long; c.tlix pyramidal, five-cornered, sessile, or on very short 

 peduncles, of a whitish green colour, shining at the top: in 

 the very centre are four complete florets, and about fiftee 

 in the disk, and four or five in the circumference, within 

 the scales of the common calix, with pistil only, all fertile; 

 antlieroc of the complete florets four, with two bristles at the 

 base ; border of the florets four-cleft : seeds of all the floret! 



