52 GENUS ARTEMISIA. 



2. ARTEMISIA PONTICA Linnaeus, Sp. PL 847, 1753. Plate 1. Roman Wormwood. 



A perennial herb with a slightly woody base and creeping rootstock, 3 to 10 dm. 

 high, the herbage fragrant; stems unbranched for most of their length, erect, striate, 

 Ughtly puberulent, glabrate and then commonly reddish; principal leaves crowded, 

 petioled (the petiole with stipule-like often lobed auricles at base), 1 to 3 cm. long, twice 

 pinnatifid into short divergent linear divisions, these often toothed, the margins obscurely 

 revolute, tomentulose but sometimes glabrate above, densely tomentulose beneath; 

 upper leaves similar but smaller, the uppermost sessile and less divided or only ternately 

 cleft or entire; inflorescence a terminal panicle, leafy below, 10 to 25 cm. long, 2 to 4 cm. 

 broad; heads heterogamous, short-peduncled, nodding or at least spreading on the 

 raceme-like branches; involucre hemispheric, about 2 to 3 mm. high, 3 to 4 mm. broad; 

 bracts 12 to 18, the outermost ones lanceolate, herbaceous, densely tomentulose, slightly 

 shorter than the others, the inner ones obovate or broadly elliptic, mostly scarious, tomen- 

 tulose only where exposed; receptacle naked; ray-flowers 10 to 15 or 18, corolla about 1 

 mm. long, narrowly tubular, rather deeply toothed; disk-flowers 25 to 45, fertile, corolla 

 campanulate, 1 to 1.5 mm. long, 5-toothed, glabrous; style-branches of disk-flowers flat, 

 truncate, erose at summit; achenes somewhat turbinate, with broad truncate shoulder- 

 like summit which often forms a narrow raised border, 4- or 5-angled, glabrous. 



Eastern Europe and adjacent Asia; escaped from cultivation in southern Canada and 

 at various points from Maine to Pennsylvania and Ohio. Type locality, Hungary. 

 Collections: Portland, Maine, Fernald 2213 (Or); Walpole, New Hampshire, Fernald 509 

 (SF) ; Southington, Connecticut, September 15, 1908, Bissell (Gr) ; Point Edward, Ontario, 

 Dodge 24 (US); Gouverneur, New York, Phelps 1218 (Gr); Luzerne County, Pennsyl- 

 vania, September 20, 1890, Small and Heller (US); Milan, Erie County, Ohio, August 

 20, 1914, MacDaniels (Gr). 



RELATIONSHIPS. 



The closest allies of A. pontica are Old World species. One of these, namely A. 

 abrotanum, occurs also in America as an introduced plant. The evidence of the close 

 relationship of these two species is found chiefly in the achenes, which are almost identi- 

 cal in shape and angles and very unlike those of most other species. The evidence at 

 hand indicates that pontica is the more highly developed of the two, as is seen in its more 

 specialized leaves and reduced inflorescence. It is not unlikely that a close study of Old 

 World species will reveal others more closely allied to pontica. The nearest American 

 relative, and the only one with similar achenial characters, is A. calif ornica, under which 

 is given a full discussion of the probable origin of this group. 



The only Artemisia with which pontica could be confused in this country is A. abro- 

 tanum. From this it differs in its herbaceous habit, and especially in the shorter leaves 

 with very short divergent segments and with a pair of conspicuous divided lobes at the 

 base of the petiole. The young foliage is quite gray or almost white as compared with 

 the green foliage of abrotanum, and the flowers are smaller. 



ECOLOGY AND USES. 



Artemisia pontica is a perennial herb with creeping rootstock and sHghtly woody 

 base, which forms open societies on hillsides and open places in central and southeastern 

 Europe. In America it is an infrequent escape in waste places. 



The gray and finely dissected leaves give to this plant a very pleasing appearance, 

 and it is therefore in some use as a garden ornamental. In France it is sometimes pre- 

 ferred to A. absinthium in the preparation of absinthe, but it is not much used for this 

 purpose. It has also found some use as a substitute for southernwood {A. abrotanum) 

 for medical purposes, but it is said to be less eflScacious. 



