
322 PLANTS GROWING IN WASTE SOIL. 
plant and ata distance might easily be mistaken for an aster. 
Its tubular flowers and involucre, however, at once remind us 
that it is the iron-weed. 
BONESET. THOROUGHWORT. 
Eupatortum per foliatum. 
FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 
Composite. Greenish white. Herbaceous. General. August, September. 
Flower-heads ; very small; tubular, growing in large, dense corymbs. Leaves : 
opposite; united at the base about the stem; lanceolate; rough ; netted-veined 
and serrated. Stem : four to five feet high; branching ; leafy ; very hairy. 
When in full blow the protruding stamens from these innumer- 
able little flowers give a fluffy look to boneset that greatly 
adds to its rather slight claim to beauty. Perhaps the know- 
ing insects have the same faith in its efficacy for healing as was 
believed in. by the good old herb doctors, as they manage 
almost every season to devour the leaves so that they are 
left simply fibrous net-works. 
Boneset is, as it has always been, a staunch friend to frail 
humanity, and a well-prepared decoction of the dried herb 
causes new vigour to flow through the veins of many a droop- 
ing mortal. 
Boneset taffy is very good, much better to taste, in fact, than 
boneset tea. | 
COMMON YARROW. IMILFOIL. (Plate CLX7/L) 
Achilléa Mellefolium. 
FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 
Composite. White, or pinkish. Leaves, strongly scented. General. JSuly-October. 
Flower-heads : growing in compound corymbs and composed of hoth ray 
and disk flowers. The rays four or five, square and three-cleft at the apex ; 
the disk dingy white. Zeaves: alternate ; twice divided into fine segments. 
Stem : very leafy ; angled; much branched at the top. 
It is fortunate that the milfoil is attributed with so many 
virtues and has the sanction of the great Achilles, whose name 
it bears, and who is said to have discovered its healing pro- 
perties, and to have employed them for the benefit of his 
soldiers ; for certainly itis not pretty. That is, we think it is 
not pretty when we see it along the roadside. Placed under a 

