Inula.] XLIII. COMPOSITE. 233 



IX. INULA. INULE. 



Herbs, usually erect, with alternate, entire or toothed leaves. Flower- 

 heads in terminal corymbs or panicles, or rarely solitary. Involucral 

 bracts imbricated in several rows. Florets all yellow, the outer rows 

 ligulate and radiating, or rarely short and concealed by the involucre ; 

 those of the disk tubular. Eeceptacle without scales. Achenes cylin- 

 drical or angular, with a pappus of many hairs. Anthers tipped at the 

 lower end by two minute hair-like points called tails. 



A numerous European and north Asiatic genus, technically distin- 

 guished from Solidago by the tails of the anthers ; but these, though 

 constant, are so minute as not to be seen without a careful dissection 

 and good magnifier. The florets of the ray are also very numerous and 

 narrow in Inula, much fewer and broader in Solidago. 



Rays considerably longer than the involucre. 

 Leaves flat, ovate, oblong, or lanceolate. 

 Flower-heads very large, with broadly ovate involucral bracts 1. 7. Helenium. 

 Flower-heads less than an inch diameter without the rays. 

 Glabrous or nearly so. Involucral bracts lanceolate, ciliate 2. I. salicina. 

 Downy plant Involucral bracts narrow . . . . , 5. I. dysenterica. 

 Leaves narrow, thick, succulent. Plant glabrous. Fower-heads 



not large 3. I. crWimoides, 



Bays very minute, concealed by the involucre, or scarcely longer. 

 Tall perennial. Flower-heads ovoid, in dense corymbs . . 4. 1. Conyza. 

 Annual, scarcely a foot high. Flower-heads broad, softly downy, 



in a loose leafy corymb 6. 7. Pulicaria. 



1. I. Helenium, Linn. (fig. 514). Elecampane. — A coarse perennial, 

 with stout, erect, scarcely branched stems, about 2 feet high. Kadical 

 leaves often a foot long, oblong, and narrowed into a stalk ; the upper 

 ones ovate or oblong, clasping the stem, nearly glabrous above, more 

 or less softly hairy underneath. Flower-heads very large, solitary at 

 the ends of the branches. Involucral bracts broadly ovate and softly 

 hairy. Florets of the ray numerous, long, and linear. 



In rich hilly pastures, in central and southern Europe, and eastward 

 to the Caucasus and Himalaya, and, having been much cultivated in 

 former days in herb-gardens, it has established itself in many places 

 farther north. It may therefore be only an introduced plant in Britain, 

 when growing, as it generally does, in the neighbourhood of old castles 

 and gardens ; but is also believed to be truly indigenous in Yorkshire, 

 in some parts of southern England, South Wales, and Ireland. Fl. 

 summer and autumn. 



2. I. salicina, Linn. (fig. 515). Willow-leaved I. — Eootstock peren- 

 nial, with erect stems, scarcely branched, 1 to 2 feet high, the whole 

 plant glabrous or sprinkled with a few hairs especially on the under 

 side of the leaves. Leaves oblong or lanceolate, acute, entire or bordered 

 with small sharp teeth, clasping the stem with rounded auricles. Flower- 

 heads terminal, solitary or rarely 3 to 5 in a terminal corymb. Involucre 

 hemispherical, about f inch diameter; the bracts narrow, ciliate. 

 Florets of the ray numerous, narrow, spreading, yellow. 



In moist pastures and along ditches in the outskirts of woods ; 

 widely spread over the continent of Europe, and sometimes common, ex- 

 tending northwards to a few localities in Sweden. In the United King- 

 dom, found only on the margins of Lough Derg, in Galway. Fl. summer. 



3. I. crithmoid.es, Linn. (fig. 516). Golden Samphire. — A glabrous, 



