150 



N. Ord. COMPOSITES. 

 Tribe Inuloidece. 



Genus Inula,* Linn, B. & H., Gen., ii, p. 330. Species 56, 

 natives of Europe, Africa, and Asia, chiefly in temperate 

 countries. 



150. Inula Helenium, Linn., Sp. Plant., ed. 1, p. 881 (1753). 



Elecampane. 



Syn. Corvisartia Helenium, Merat. 



Figures. Woodville, t. 26-; Hayne, vi, t. 45 ; Steph. & Ch., t. 49 ; 

 Nees, t. 240; Berg & Sch., t. 22 f.; Syme, E. Bot., v, t. 766; 

 Beichenbach, Ic. Fl. Germ., xvi, t. 921. 



Description. A perennial herb with a large, somewhat flat, 

 many-headed rootstock, very thick and fleshy, extending below 

 into a fusiform root with thick succulent branches. Stem reaching 

 5 feet high, usually about 3 feet, erect, thick, striate, solid, 

 shortly hairy or woolly, corymbosely branched at the top. Boot- 

 leaves very large, long-stalked, about 18 inches long, oblong-oval, 

 tapering at both ends and much attenuate and decurrent along the 

 petiole ; stem-leaves sessile, or nearly so, ovate acute, the upper 

 ones, amplexicaul ; all finely and rather irregularly serrate-dentate, 

 smooth and green above, veiny, greyish and shortly but densely 

 woolly beneath. Heads very large, solitary, terminating the 

 branches, 2J inches or more wide ; involucral scales imbricated in 

 several rows, erect, the outer ones very large and leaflike, broadly 

 oval, with the points recurved, the inner ones narrower, thickly 

 downy outside, and with ciliated margins, the innermost linear, 

 acuminate, glabrous ; receptacle broad, nearly flat, naked, with a 

 shallow excavation for each flower. Disk-flowers very numerous, 

 bisexual \ corolla tubular, slightly wider upwards, 5-toothed, 

 yellow ; anthers with long rough tails at the base ; stigmas bifid, 



* Inula, a Latin classical name for the plant, and perbaps a contraction 

 of the word Helenium, kXkviov, which was applied to the same species. By 

 tbe mediaeval writers it was written Enula. Elecampane is a corruption of 

 the ante-Linnaean name, Enula campana. 



