HARPER'S GUIDE TO WILD FLOWERS 



Common Everlasting 



Gna.pha.lium polycephalum (name means "wool"). — Family, 

 Composite. Color, whitish. Staminate and pistillate flowers in the 

 same heads all surrounded by dry, white scales, which are some- 

 times tinged with brown, the outer woolly. Flowers, in panicled 

 corymbs. Leaves, oblong or linear, clustered at the base of the 

 stem and numerous on the stem and branches, those on the 

 flowering branches very small and narrow. July to September. 



Open and dry fields and waste places. The rosettes of 

 leaves at base of stem often remain through the winter. 



Clammy Everlasting. Winged Cudweed 



G. decurrens. — Color of flowers, white, with yellowish scales un- 

 derneath. Leaves, linear, lance-shaped, slightly clasping, running 

 down on the stem. 2 to 3 feet high, woolly, fragrant. July to 

 September. 



Open clearings, dry or wet soil. A stout, erect, very 

 woolly plant, the flowers, with their dry and scarious scales, 

 clustered in dense, flat-topped masses. 



From Mr. Gibson we learn that a species of butterfly 

 (" Hunter's") with orange, black, and rose colored wings, 

 selects this plant from which to hang its cocoon, made of the 

 petals of the flowers woven together with its own silk. He 

 says: " If we take a walk in the grassy road, in the pasture- 

 lot, or mountain-path, we may now (September 2 2d) find 

 dozens of them. Yonder is a clump of the everlasting among 

 the sweet-ferns. It is white with blossoms, and some of them 

 seem fraying out in the w r ind. Our bower-builder is certainly 

 there — perhaps a dozen of them. Ah, yes, here is our bower 

 dangling from the top of the stem and blowing in the breeze." 



Low or Marsh Cudweed 



G. uliginbsum. — Color, white. Flowers, in roundish heads sur- 

 rounded by many leaves, some of which are longer than the flowers. 

 Involucre dry and papery. Leaves, without petioles, long, narrow, 

 pointed. Whole plant woolly. Low, 4 to 6 inches high. 



Found in damp soil along roadsides and in ditches. Not 

 very common. Dyed blue or red, the everlastings were 

 once favorites for winter decorations, and in company with 

 dried grasses made some parlors hideous. They have also, 

 made into wreaths, been a funeral flower. 



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