COMPOSITE. 293 



1. Elecampane Inule. Inula Helenium, Linn. 



(Eug. Bot. t. 1546. Elecampane.) 



A coarse perennial, with stout, erect, scarcely branched stems, about 2 

 feet liigh. Kadical leaves often a foot long, oblong, and narrowed into a 

 stalk ; the upper ones ovate or oblong, clasping the stem, nearly glabrous above, 

 more or less softly hau-y underneath. Flower-heads very large, solitary at 

 the ends of the branches. Involucral bracts broadly ovate and softly hauy. 

 Florets of the ray numerous, long, and linear. 



In rich hilly pastures, in central and southern Europe, and eastward to 

 the Caucasus and Himalaya, and, having been much cultivated in former 

 days in herb-gardens, it has estabUshed itself in many places further north. 

 It may therefore be only an introduced plant in Britain, when growing, as 

 it generally does, in the neighbourhood of old castles and gardens ; but is 

 also believed to be truly indigenous in some parts of southern England, 

 South Wales, and Ireland. Fl. summer and autmnn. 



2. Samphire Inule. Inula crithmoides, Linn. 



(Eng. Bot. t. 68. Golden Samphire.) 

 A glabrous, erect perennial,, about a foot high or rather more. Leaves 

 numerous, linear, thick and succulent, entire or with one or two small teeth 

 at the base. Flower-heads not large, sohtary on the short branches of a 

 short, leafy panicle. Involucral bracts numerous and narrow. Florets of 

 the ray bright-yellow and spreading, not so narrow or so numerous as in 

 the other species, yet twice as many as in the common Goldenrod. 



In salt-marshes, in western Europe, and all round the Mediterranean ; 

 frequent on the southern and western coasts of Britain up to Kirkcudbright 

 and Wigton, both in salt-marshes and on dry maritime limestone rocks. FL 

 summer and autum,n. 



3. Rigid Inule. Inula Conyza, DC. 



{Conyza squarrosa, Eng. Bot. t. 1195. PloughmarCs SpiJcenard^ 

 A hard, erect biennial, 2 to 3 feet high, covered with a short down, rough 

 on the stem, soft and cottony on the under side of the leaves. Leaves 

 ovate-lanceolate, the lower ones stalked, the upper sessile. Flower-heads 

 numerous, in a terminal corymb. Involucres ovoid ; the bracts numerous, 

 the outer ones tipped with green, the inner linear, reddish, and erect. 

 Outer florets numerous but very small, their purple styles alone protruding 

 beyond the involucre, so that the plant appears at first sight to have no ray. 

 In hedges and open woods, on banks and roadsides, in central and south- 

 ern Europe to the Caucasus, extending northwards into Denmark, but not 

 into north-eastern Germany. In Britain, as far north as Westmoreland, 

 but neither in Ireland nor Scotland. Fl. summer and autumn. 



4. Common Inule. Inula dysenterica, Linn, 

 (Eng. Bot. 1115. Fleabane.) 

 Eootstock perennial, with ascending or erect stems 1 to 2 feet high, 

 loosely branched, and, as well as the foliage, more or less downy or woolly. 

 Leaves oblong, much waved, clasping the stem with rounded auricles. 

 Flower-heads pedunculate in the upper axils or at the ends of the branches, 

 hemispherical, rather more than half an inch in diameter, with a ray of very 

 numerous, linear, spreading florets of a bright yellow. Involucral bracts also 



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