COMPOSITE 



THE FRUIT: achenes, pappus copious. 



A greenish-white plant that grows among Bayberry 

 bushes or Goat's-rue or in big, round clumps in the open. 

 The leaves, clothed with white wool, are long, slender and 

 drooping, the flower heads pearly white, with yellow-brown 

 centres. Of so essentially dry a nature is the whole plant, 

 that the rubbing of the flower heads together produces a 

 harsh sound. Because of this dry character, it t ' keeps " well 

 and no old Nantucket bouquet was complete without it. 



COMPOSITE COMPOSITE FAMILY 



Gnaphalium polycephalum, Michx. 



Cream-white Common Everlasting. Old Field Balsam, 



Cudweed, Rabbit-tobacco, 



August-October Sweet Life Everlasting, Life-of-Man, 



Fragrant Everlasting, Moonshine. 

 Sweet White Balsam, 



Gnaphalium: an ancient Greek name of some downy plant. 

 Polycephalum: Greek for many-headed. 



THE PREFERRED HABITAT: dry, sandy soil of the Commons. 



THE PLANT: erect, one foot to three feet high; stem simple, 

 or branched above, with densely matted wool. 



THE LEAVES: alternate; lanceolate or linear-lanceolate; one 

 inch to three inches long; above practically hairless and 

 commonly dark green, beneath densely white woolly; 

 acute or acutish at the apex; narrowed at the base; without 

 stems; having wavy margins. Leaves of the winter 

 rosettes, oblong. 



THE FLOWER HEADS : small and few in numerous clusters ; 

 bracts of the involucre white or tinged with brown, oblong, 

 obtuse, the outer woolly at the base. 



THE FRUIT: achenes, pappus of bristles. 

 400 



