COMPOSITiE. 137 



GENUS XXXIV.—B. ELMINTHIA. Juss. 



Anthodes many-flowered. Pericline oblong-ovoid, with 2 scries 

 of phyllaries ; those of the inner series imbricated, those of the 

 outer few, broader, often foliaceous, nearly as long as the inner. 

 Clinanth naked. Achcnes elliptical-ovoid, compressed, transversely 

 rugose, terminated by a slender beak about as long as the achene. 

 Pappus deciduous, of pure-white slender silky plumose hairs ; the 

 secondary hairs not interwoven. 



Scabrous almost prickly herbs, with dichotomously-branched 

 stems, the exterior ones usually red on the back. Florets yellow. 



The Greek words which give a uame to this genus of plants are iXfitiSoc (elminthos), 

 of a worm, and 0(/o/ (theke), a case, from a fancied resemblance in the seeds. 



SPECIES I.-H ELMINTHIA ECHIOIDES. Garin. 



Plate DCCXCVII. 



Mht, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 47. 



Eeich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XIX. Tab. MCCCLXXVIII. 



Picris echioides, Lin7i. Sm. Eng. Bot. No. 972. 



Biennial. Stem erect, hirsute. Radical and lower leaves oblong- 

 oblanceolate or oblanceolate ; upper ones lanceolate, amplexicaul ; 

 all with white warts and prickle-like bristles and hairs. Anthodes 

 in an irregularly-dichotomous corymbose cyme. Pericline with the 

 outer phyllaries 3 to 5 in number, ovate-acuminate, cordate at the 

 base, bristly-spiny on the margins. Achenes transversely striated, 

 terminated by a long slender deciduous beak. 



In waste places, by roadsides, and in cultivated fields. E-ather 

 local, though pretty generally distributed over England. About 

 Berwick-on-Tweed and Tynelield, near Dunbar, in Scotland, but 

 perhaps introduced there. 



England, Scotland (?), Ireland. Biennial or annual. Late 

 Summer and Autumn. 



Radical leaves lying flat on the ground in a rosette, bearing 

 some resemblance to the young leaves of Echium vulgare, irre- 

 gularly sprinkled with unequal white tubercles, from which stift' 

 bristles or weak prickles spring. Stem irregularly dichotomously 

 branched, rough with hooked hairs. Lower stem-leaves oblanceo- 

 late, and all except the lowest dilated and auricled at the base, the 

 uppermost of all tapering from the base to the apex ; all coarsely 

 dentate or repand-dentate, and ciliated with stifi" bristles. Outer 

 phyllaries very large, nearly concealing the inner ones, but not quite 



VOL. V. X 



