White and Greenish 



Yarrow; Milfoil; Old Man's Pepper; Nosebleed 



{Achillea Millefolhim) Thistle family 



Flower-heads— Gray\s\\-w\\\Xe, rarely pinkish, in a hard, close, flat- 

 topped, compound cluster. Ray florets 4 to 6, pistillate, 

 fertile; disk florets yellow, afterward brown, perfect, fertile. 

 Stem: Erect, from horizontal rootstalk, i to 2 ft. high, leafy, 

 sometimes hairy. Leaves: Very finely dissected [Mille- 

 foliiim = thousand leaf), narrowly oblong in outline. 



Preferred Bah' /a /—Waste land, dry fields, banks, roadsides. 



Flowering Season — ^J une — November. 



Z>/j/n^////(7«— Naturalized from Europe and Asia throughout North 

 America. 



Everywhere this commonest of common weeds confronts 

 us; the compact, dusty-looking clusters appearing not by way- 

 sides only, around the world, but in the mythology, folk lore, 

 medicine, and literature of many peoples. Chiron, the centaur, 

 who taught its virtues to Achilles that he might make an oint- 

 ment to heal his Myrmidons wounded in the siege of Troy, 

 named the plant for this favorite pupil, giving his own to the 

 beautiful blue corn-flower (Centaurea Cvaiius). As a love-charm; 

 as an herb-tea brewed by crones to cure divers ailments, from 

 loss of hair to the ague; as an inducement to nosebleed for the 

 relief of congestive headache; as an ingredient of an especially 

 intoxicatingbeer made by the Swedes, it is mentioned in old 

 books. Nowadays we are' satisfied merely to admire the feathery 

 masses of lace-like foliage formed by young plants, to whiff the 

 wholesome, nutty, autumnal odor of its flowers, or to wonder 

 at the marvellous scheme it employs to overrun the earth. 



Like the daisy, each small flower in a cluster, as symmetrically 

 arranged as brain coral, is made up of a large number of minute 

 but perfect llorets, suited to attract insects by making a better 

 show than each could do alone, and by offering them accessible 

 feeding places close together, where they may feast with mini- 

 mum loss of time. Simultaneous cross-fertilization of many 

 florets must be effected by every visitor crawling over a cluster. 

 The florets in each disk open in regular array toward the centre. 

 At the expense of stamens, which are absent in the grayish- 

 white ray florets, they have attained their development, another 

 instance of "progress by loss " from the evolutionary standpoint. 

 By prolonging its season of bloom to get relief from the fierce com- 

 petition for insect visitors in midsummer ; by increase through 

 seeds, and runners too ; by contenting itself with neglected 

 corners of the earth, the yarrow gives us many valuable lessons 

 on how to succeed. 



268 



