COMPOSITE— COMPOSITE FAMILY 



GROUNDSEL-TREE 



Bdccharis halimifblia. 



Baccharis, the name of a shrub anciently dedicated to Bac- 

 chus ; without significance in its present use. 



A branching glabrous shrub, three to nine feet high, the 

 branchlets angled, sometimes minutely scurfy ; found on the sea- 

 beaches, along salt marshes and tidal rivers, extending inland 

 beyond saline influences. Ranges from Massachusetts to Florida 

 and Texas. 



Leaves. — Alternate, simple, three-nerved, midvein most promi- 

 nent, one to three inches long, obovate or oblong, short-petioled 

 or sessile, entire or few-toothed toward the apex. Leaves on the 

 flowering spray smaller than the others ; when full grown are 

 thick, bright green, glabrous. In autumn ley turn yellow or 

 fall with little change of color; persist until beaten off by first 

 winter storms. 



Flowers. — September, October. Dioecious. Calyx-tube adnate 

 to ovary, the limb bristled; corolla tubular, five-lobed ray flow- 

 ers absent; stamens five ; ovary one-celled ; style of fertile flow- 

 ers two-cleft. In heads of terminal peduncled clusters of two to 

 five; those of the sterile plant nearly globose when young; the 

 bracts of the involucre oblong-ovate, obtuse, glutinous, appressed; 

 the inner ones of the pistillate heads lanceolate, acute or acutish. 



Fruit. — Achenes, with bright white pappus, one-fourth to one- 

 half an inch long ; in two series of capillary bristles, much ex- 

 ceeding the involucre. 



The Groundsel-tree, Baccharis halimifolia, is now conspicuous with its 

 long, white, silky pappus. Although it belongs to the largest order of flow- 



3" 



