29O NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



pubescent, closely sessile or rarely short petioled, blunt at the apex, rounded 

 at the base, crenate toothed i to 4 inches long, one-half to 1 inch wide, the 

 upper pairs smaller and distant. Heads white, about one-fourth of an 

 inch high, each with about five tubular flowers, the heads arranged in a 

 cymose panicle; involucre bell-shaped, composed of about three series of 

 overlapping linear-lanceolate, pointed and densely pubescent bracts, the 

 outer ones shorter. 



In moist, usually sandy soil, mainly near the coast from Massachusetts 

 to Florida, West Virginia and Louisiana. Flowering from July to 

 September. 



Common Thoroughwort ; Boneset 

 Eupatorium perfoliatum Linnaeus 



Plate 230 



Stems stout, rigid, hairy, branched above, 2 to 5 feet high from a 

 perennial root. Leaves tough, veiny and wrinkled on both surfaces, oppo- 

 site and united by their bases (connate-perfoliate), the upper pairs usually 

 not united, lanceolate, long pointed at the apex, 4 to 8 inches long, 1 to 

 1 \ inches wide, pubescent on the under surface, the margins finely crenate- 

 toothed. Inflorescence consisting of many heads in a rather congested, 

 nearly flat-topped cyme; each head one-sixth to one-fourth of an inch 

 high and ten to sixteen-flowered , dull leaden-white in color. Involucre 

 campanulate, pubescent, with lanceolate bracts arranged in two or three 

 series. 



Common in wet meadows and low grounds, especially along streams 

 in marshes and swamps, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to Manitoba, 

 south to Florida, Texas and Nebraska. Flowering in late summer, from 

 July to September. In former times and even yet in some rural sections, 

 boneset tea, made from the dried leaves of this plant, is prized for certain 

 medicinal properties. 



