GOLDEN IMMORTELLE 



Involucre. — Cup-shaped, of two rows of hairy, imbricated bracts. 

 Receptacle. — Convex, naked. 



Akene. — Slender, angled, with a pappus of five to six white, awl- 

 shaped bristles. 



The Blue Ageratum, which is the form commonly found in 

 gardens, is a native of tropical America. Although blue is the 

 preferred color, the flowers vary to white and rose. The heads 

 are destitute of rays, the tubular flowers are closely crowded, and, 

 as the styles are very long, they give the flower-head a soft, plumy 

 effect. 



GOLDEN IMMORTELLE 



Helichrysum bracteatum. 



Helichrysum, Greek for sun and gold; referring to the brilliancy of 

 the flower. 



One of a group of African and Australian composites, remarkable for 

 their brilliant involucres, which give the effect of rays. The group pro- 

 duce the unfading flowers of commerce, known as Immortelles. Annual. 

 Variable; easily cultivated. 



Stem. — Stout, two to three feet high; branched. 



Leaves. — Oblong-lanceolate, narrowed to short petioles. 



Flower-heads. — Discoid, terminal, solitary; disk-florets yellow, 

 crowded. 



Involucre. — Many rows of pointed bracts. 



Bracts. — Overlapping; brilliantly colored; normally yellow to orange, 

 but now varying into many colors in the long-cultivated forms. The 

 bracts reflex as the head gets older, and become narrower in the series 

 nearest the disk. 



Akenes. — ^Woolly, crowned with pappus of many plumose bristles. 



Among other Immortelles in cultivation are Helipterum 

 Mdnglesii, Sun-winged Immortelle, which bears a loose corymb of 

 showy flower-heads, rose or silvery-white; Rhoddnthe maculata, 

 having beU-shaped heads of white, pink, or crimson; Acroclinum, 

 with white or rose heads; and Xerdnthemum dnnuum, a species 

 native to the Mediterranean regions, with flower-heads purple, 

 violet, or white. All are annuals and all of easy cultivation. 



The Immortelles are a most unusual and interesting group of 



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