153 



N. Ord. COMPOSITE, 

 Tribe Anthemidece. 



Genus AchiUea,* Linn. B. & H., Gen., ii, p. 419. Species 

 100, natives of the northern hemisphere, especially of the 

 old world. 



153. Achillea Millefolium,t Linn., Sp. Plant., ed. 1, p. 899 



(1753). 



Yarrow. Milfoil. 



Syn. A. setacea, Waldst. & Kit. 



Figures. Woodville, t. 15 ; Nees, 246 ; Hayne, ix, t. 45 ; Berg & Sch., 

 t. 19 a ; Curt., Fl. Lond., fasc. 6 ; Syme, E. Bot., v, t. 727 (bad) , 

 Reichenb., Ic. FL Germ., xvi, t. 1026. 



Description. A perennial herb with a slender creeping root- 

 stock, giving off numerous filiform roots, and several long sub- 

 terranean, reddish stolons with a blunt succulent scale at each 

 node. Flowering stem erect, 3 18 inches high, stiff, slightly 

 striate, more or less covered with short, white, shaggy hairs, 

 slightly branched above. Leaves alternate, the radical ones often 

 6 inches long, stalked, with a wide petiole, lanceolate-oblong in 

 outline, the cauline ones much smaller, sessile and oblong, all 

 very deeply bi- or tri-pinnatisect with closely placed, overlapping 

 segments which are again cut into linear, very acute lobes, more 

 or less hairy. Heads small, stalked, numerous, ovoid, erect, 

 crowded, forming together a more or less flat-topped corymbose 

 inflorescence at the ends of the stem and branches, bracts none, 

 or a few linear ones ; involucral scales in 2 or 3 rows, strongly 

 imbricate, oblong, blunt, strongly keeled, pale green, with a 

 narrow pale-brown scarious margin ; receptacle slightly convex, 

 set with oblong, transparent scales. Disk flowers bisexual, about 

 8 12 ; calyx-limb obsolete ; corolla tubular, slightly inflated 



* Achillea, dxi\\uoc, was the classical name of some aromatic composite 

 plant, named after Achilles, who was said to have discovered its properties. 



f Millefolium, the name for the plant in the middle ages ; from its multifid 

 leaves. 



