Inula.] COMPOSIT/E. 253 



VIII. Inula, Linn. Elecampane. 



" Achenes terete or angled. Pappus pilose, in 1 row. Recep- 

 tacle naked. Involucre imbricated. Anthers with bristles at 

 their base. {Floioers yellow)."- — Br. Fl. 



1. I. Heleniwm, L. Elecampane. Vect. Velvet Dock. Wild 

 Sun -flower. " Leaves amplexicaul somewhat toothed ovate 

 wrinkled downy beneath, outer scales of the involucre ovate 

 downy reflexed leafy, inner ones obovate, ray twice as long as the 

 disk, achenes 4-angled glabrous." — Br. Fl. p. 340. E. B. t. 

 1546. Curtis, Br. Entom. xv. 



lu moist meadows, pastures and thickets, on hedgebanks, about the borders of 

 fields and amongst bushes ; not very common, though truly wild with us. Fl. 

 July — September. If. 



E. Med. — Tn the first field within the walls of Quarr abbey after passing the 

 copse, plentifully. Edge of the little brook by Binstead stone-pits. Stream-side 

 in a wood near Haven-street, and close by Blackbridge. Near Beanacre farm. 

 Near Bowlands, Mr. Thos. Meehan. Luccombe landslip, at the end near Bon- 

 church, W. Wilson Saunders, Esq. !.'! Near Ashey, Mr. J. Woods, jun., B. G. 



W. Med. — Border of a field about half a mile from Calbourne, near the road 

 to Yarmouth, in some plenty. Field not far from Thovley church, and elsewhere 

 in that parish. Plentiful in some fields between Wellovv and Ningwood farm. 

 Head of the marsh-land between Gurnet bay and Hardhill farm, by the brook. 

 Waste places about Freshwater. About Weston farm, B. T. W. In a field by 

 the Medina, a little above W. Cowes, in plenty, Mr. S. Hailstone !!! Near Wil- 

 miugham farm. Rev. J. Pen/old.'!! By Hebbard's farm. Rev. W. Darwin 

 Fox !!! 



The short, thick, tuberous and fleshy crown of the root emits several stout, 

 tapering, branched fibres. Stem ;5— 5 feet high, stout, erect, solid and leafy, 

 rounded below, bluntly angular and furrowed above, stained with purplish brown, 

 branched only towards the summit, downy all over with simple jointed hairs. 

 Leaves very like those of some Verbascum, ovate-acute, rugosely veined, those on 

 the stem finely but unequally denticulato-serrate, yellowish green above with a 

 short rough pubescence, whitish or hoary beneath with thick, close and veiy soft 

 down, and reticulated with numerous prominent veins springing from the stout 

 projecting midrib, which is often reddish on the upper side of the leaf; radical 

 leaves very large, sometimes, including the winged petiole, upwards of 2 feet in 

 length and 1 foot in breadth, their margins decurrent the whole length of the flat- 

 tened upper side of the nearly cylindrical very long petioles, more coarsely and 

 unequally serrated than the perfectly sessile, alternate, amplexicaul stem-leaves, 

 which are only slighlly decurrent on one side of their rounded auricular bases by 

 an oblique attachment to the stem. Flowers terminal, solitary, very large, 2i to 

 3 inches in diameter, golden yellow, with long, very narrow, linear, variously 

 spreading rays. Involucre hemispherical, its scales {bracts') in several alternate 

 rows, the more exterior leafy, broadly ovate, undulated, patent and downy with 

 brownish tips, the innermost series paleaceous, erect, linear, smooth and shining, 

 with pale-brown, scariose, fringed or subserrated extremities. Receptacle plane, 

 solid, quite naked, fovese circular, with roughish but scarcely raised margins. 

 Florets of the disk numerous, the tube a little bent in the middle, their segments 

 thickened at the tips. Anthers with long awns at their base. Styles a little 

 exserted ; stigmas two flattened, spathulate, spreading lobes slightly channelled 

 above. Florets of the circumference with long, linear, very narrow, unequally 

 3-toothed rays, and linear stigmas. Pappus simple, rough, in a single row, nearly 

 as long as the florets. 



The fresh root has a hot, bitterish, slightly aromatic taste. 



