COMPOSITE 



THE LEAVES: alternate; two to three pinnately divided 

 into narrowly linear, acute lobes; upper leaves pinnately 

 divided, or the uppermost entire; all sometimes bearing a 

 few short, soft hairs; lower leaves and those of sterile 

 shoots on slender stems; upper leaves sessile or nearly so. 



THE FLOWER HEADS: very small, in a large, somewhat 

 leafy panicle. 



THE FRUIT: achenes; pappus none. 



The presence of this Wormwood is an indicator of very 

 sandy soil. In some places, indeed, its low-spreading, 

 flattened branches offer footholds in the beach sand, where 

 little else but Eel grass is growing. In form and in colour 

 it varies as it matures. When the plant is young, the 

 finely divided light green leaves on low stems remind one 

 of the Wild Carrot. Later, the stem still unbranched, 

 crowded with very dark green leaves, bends stiffly back- 

 ward, while still later one finds single plants or rosettes 

 of plants, much branched and crowded with leaves and 

 bearing tiny, green-yellow flower-clusters that resemble 

 little pin-heads, or the whole plant already turned reddish 

 brown and withered. 



Even this ugly plant has been mistaken for Heather! 



COMPOSITE COMPOSITE FAMILY 



Artemisia SteUeriana, Bess. 



Beech Worm-wood, 

 Yellow- white Dusty Miller, 



Mugwort, 

 July-August Old Woman. 



Artemisia: for derivation see caudata. 

 SteUeriana: Latin name in honor of G. W. Steller, an ex- 

 plorer of the early eighteenth century. 



THE PREFERRED HABITAT: beach sand. 

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