142 PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



tues, medicinal and soothing, all which, except the unpleasant 

 odor and orange color, have disappeared in modern times. It is 

 raised for its beauty, bearing single and double flowers, continuing 

 to blossom for a long time, and having many varieties. It is less 

 a favorite, perhaps, than formerly, but is highly worthy of a con- 

 spicuous place in every flower-garden. It is cultivated with great 

 ease ; and its seeds, found only round the outside of the flower, 

 are curiously heel-shaped, almost a semicircle when ripe. 



Ambrosia. L. 19. 5. 



The pleasant odor of the bruised leaves of some of the spe- 

 cies led to the application of the name of the food of the heathen 

 gods to this genus, some species of which are called in English by 

 very different names. It is almost wholly a North American 

 genus, of S or 10 species, only 3 of which are natives of this 

 State. Most of the species are mere weeds. 



A. elatior. W. Rag Weed. Wild Wormwood. Stem 

 2-4 feet high, with wand-like branches, and leaves bipinnatifid, 

 smooth ; flowers in paniculate racemes ; the staminate flowers 

 in long racemes looking like seeds, and supposed to be seeds 

 by those who partially examine ; fertile flowers below in little 

 aggregations : bearing a small nut ; in waste places and over 

 fields. The bruised leaves were formerly in popular use as an 

 application to wounds and bruises. Plant very bitter, resembling 

 common Wormwood. Flowers insignificant, and the plant a 

 weed. 



A. trifida. W. Under the same common names as the last, 

 which it much resembles, though it is a much larger plant, hence 

 often called Giant Ambrosia, with 3-lobed, serrate leaves ; a mere 

 weed ; in fields. 



A. heterophylla. Muhl. Grows on banks of streams, and less 

 common than the others, with cauline, pinnatifid leaves, and lan- 

 ceolate, sessile leaves ; long ciliate hairs on the petioles ; flowers 

 in July. 



