BY MEANS OF THE PYRETHRUM. 539 



flowers. The plants of the disk (those which are yellow and situated 

 in the centre) have a corolla, hollowed, regular, divided at the top in 

 five large teeth, and presenting on the external surface small grains. 

 In cutting the corolla, we may see the several organs ; the five stamens 

 have their anthers united in a tube, each terminating by an appendix 

 which results in the prolongation of the connexion in the form of an 

 oval tongue. The threads are slender and abruptly inflated near the 

 antheris. The style presents at its basis an inflation in the form of a 

 bulb, crosses the tube of the stamens, and terminates in two developed 

 branches with stigmas. The flowers on the circumference are female, 

 that is, they inclose only the pistil, the stamens being represented by 

 five little distinct thread-like bodies inflated with a rounded head at 

 the extremity. The ovary of the flowers of the disk, as well as of those 

 of the circumference, is inferior, that is other parts of the flower are 

 inserted at the top, slightly arched and marked with five longitudinal 

 angles, alternating with the teeth of the corolla. The ovary, the form of 

 which is thus somewhat prismatic and surmounted by a border forming 

 a cup irregularly toothed, and constituting what is termed an egret, 

 because in many compound flowers that part forms a silky assemblage. 



The external side of the ovary is flat in the flowers of the circum- 

 ference, whilst in those of the disk it forms a projecting corner. 

 Thus the portion of the sections of the ovary, situated at the bottom are 

 also connected with the exterior of the flowers. The hollow of the ovary 

 is filled almost entirely by an erect ovula inflated at the top and 

 turned back or reflexed. The fruits or akenes which succeed the 

 ovaries, are a little more arched than the last, presenting between their 

 five sides small resinous grains. Their egret, as we have termed it in 

 speaking of the ovary, is composed of a sort of cup, which does not 

 reach scarcely the sixth or seventh part of the length of the fruit or 

 akene. 



Culture and Gathering. — The Pyrethrum, though a native of Mount 

 Caucasus, where it grows abundantly and at a slight elevation above the 

 level of the sea, under a latitude warmer than that of Paris, succeeds 

 very well on good soil in France. It is very hardy and can sustain 

 without hazard, the severe winter there. A few years' experience has 

 taught the writer that it is little sensible to cold, and that it needs no 

 shelter during the winter. It has been asserted that the kindred species 

 which also grow in the Caucasus have rather suffered than benefited by 

 the shelter given to them. The soil best adapted to the culture 

 of the plant is a pure earth somewhat silicious and dry. Moisture 

 and the presence of clung is injurious, the plant being extremely sensi- 

 tive to a mass of water, and would in such case immediately perish. A 

 southern aspect is the most favourable. The best time for putting the 

 seed in the ground is from March to April. It can be done even in the 

 month of February if the weather will permit it. After the soil has 

 been prepared and the seeds are sown, they are covered by a stratum of 



