GOLDEN EOD BAGWOET. 173 



marshes about Clevedon with its fleshy leaves and clusters of 

 purple flowers, and flourishes in the damp rocky places about 

 the Lizard Cliffs. It is sometimes called " Sea Starwort," and 

 is eagerly welcomed, because it blooms at a season when other 

 flowers are scarcer. This is our only British Aster. 



Our gardens present beautiful foreign species, richly-coloured 

 and double, most of them from China or Germany. A tall 

 species, frequent in cottage gardens, and popularly known as 

 the " Michaelmas Daisy," I gathered wild on the banks of the 

 JSTeckar, in Germany ; and a more beautiful one, of lower 

 growth and large blue blossoms, I brought from the Jura 

 Mountains. 



The Golden Eod (Solidago virgaurea), is abundant in Kent : 

 it grows freely in the hedges about Hawkhurst. We find it 

 pretty often in Yorkshire, but it is certainly a less common 

 plant there. It is tall and wand-like, and has perpendicular 

 branches, and flower- stalks springing from them. Both the 

 flowers of the disk and the rays are yellow. It used to be 

 valued as a cure for wounds, and was sold in the London markets 

 by the herb-women. It flowers from August to October. 



The Ragwort family succeeds that of the Golden Eod. It 

 has numerous members scattered all over the globe ; in all they 

 number six hundred. 



The common Groundsel (Senecio vulgaris), so well known as 

 a bird food, needs no description. When water is poured upon 

 it, and allowed to stand awhile, it forms a softening wash for 

 heated skin. This species has no marginal flowers or rays. 



The Mountain Eagwort (S. sylvatica), which I found on the 

 sandy hedgebanks in Cheshire, and Fanny on the cliffs at 

 Polperro, has small rays, but they curl back soon after opening. 

 Its habit resembles that of the Groundsel, but the flowers do 

 not droop, and it is much taller. 



The Inelegant Eagwort (S. squalidus, Plate XI., Jig. 7), is 

 a graduate of Oxford, growing on old walls about that notable 

 place. The appearance of this plant belies its name ; for though 



