262 COMPOSITE. [Anthemis. 



Chamomile is quite a western and maritime species ; a stranger to the inland 

 countries of the Continent, wheie its place is often supplied hy the Wild Chamo- 

 mile (Matricaria Chamomitla), which possesses in a less degree the tonic and 

 aromatic qualities of the genuine plant. 



S. A. arvensis, L. Corn Chamomile. " Leaves bipinnatifid, 

 segments linear-lanceolate pubescent, receptacle conical its scales 

 lanceolate, fruit crowned with an entire pappus." — Sr. Fl. p. 244. 

 E. B. t. 602. 



In sandy or chalky fields, amongst grass, cloTer, turnips, &c. (I have never 

 seen it here in corn) ; more rarely on hedgebanks and waste ground, but by no 

 means common with us or persistent where found, huving perhaps been introduced 

 with grass-seeds from the mainland of England or the Continent. Fl. May — 

 July. Of ^ ? 



E. Med. — In several places about Sandown and Shanklin, as in fields near 

 Lee farm and between Cliff and Hide. Arreton. Field below Ashey down. In 

 grass-fields at Vinnicombe barn, by Newchuvch. Clover-field between Weeks's 

 and Little Smallbrook. Sparingly in the glebe at Newchurch. Plentifully in a 

 field of clover near Little Duxmoie. In a grass-field near the St. Boniface hotel, 

 Bonchurch, sparingly. In a lay-field at Sandford, near Godshill. Near East- 

 Standen farm. 



W.Med. — In a field' near Idlecombe. About Svvaiaston. Plentiful about 

 Colwell and most parts of the island, B. T. W. 



Root annual, fibrous. Stems several, procumbent at the base, diffuse and 

 spreading, much branched, and like the rest of the plant more or less clothed with 

 gray hoary pubescence, iea yes short, a little fleshy, doubly pinnatifid, the seg- 

 ments linear-lanceolate, cut and pointed. Flowers solitary, on long peduncles at 

 the end of the branches, large, white and handsome, approaching those of Chry- 

 santhemum leucauthemum in size. Involucre hemispherical, cottony, its scales 

 ovate, very obtuse, with a broad, membranous, pellucid border. Palcie linear- 

 lanceolate, concave, tapering at each end, very acute, about as long as the florets. 

 Ray broad, white, deflexed at night ; florets of the disk bright yellow, all perfect 

 (hermaphrodite); those of the ray without stamens (female). .<4c/(enes pale brown 

 or nearly white, glabrous, ohlong-obconic, somewhat obsoletely quadrangular, the 

 faces deeply furrowed longitudinally, but not transversely wrinkled, their truncate 

 summits crowned in the inner central or uppermost florets with a very thin, shal- 

 low, erect border, which in the inferior florets becomes flat, spreading or discoid, 

 and plicately rugose. 



This species bears much resemblance to some of the more hairy forms of A, 

 Cotula, which in pubescence and breadth of the segments of its leaves approaches 

 the former pretty closely ; but A. arvensis may be always distinguished from it by 

 its lax procumbent habit, generally larger and fewer flowers, that are on very long 

 hairy peduncles a little enlarged upwards, and not disposed in the same pauicled 

 or corymbose manner as in that species. 



The bruised flower-heads have a weak smell of Chamomile, of which the her- 

 bage is quite destitute. 



The Rev. G. E. Smith remarked to me that this species is the earliest in flower 

 of the tribe, beginning to blossom at least in May, if not earlier, when it is con- 

 spicuous in clover-fields, but later in the season is not so readily detected, in con- 

 sequence probably of being confounded and overlooked amidst the predominance 

 of its more abundant allies, Pyrethrum and Chrysanthemum. 



I remarked in June, 1848, that in a field of Vetches at Newchurch, upon which 

 sheep were penned for the purpose of eating it down, the Anthemis arvensis was 

 cropped close to the root by those animals, and, though excessively abundant, not 

 a plant was spared by them. The plant ought perhaps rather to be encouraged 

 than otherwise in our clover- and grass-fields, as its sweet aromatic qualities are 

 probably salutary to stock of most kinds. 



