Artemisia.] XLIII. COMPOSITE. 241 



XVIII. ARTEMISIA. AKTEMLSIA. 



Herbs or shrubs, usually highly aromatic, with narrow, alternate 

 leaves, usually much divided, and often white or grey, at least on the 

 under side. Flower-heads small, in terminal leafy racemes or panicles. 

 Involucral bracts imbricated, usually loosely cottony, with slightlj 

 scarious edges. Florets the length of the involucres, yellow or greenish, 

 either all tubular and 5 -toothed, or the central ones tubular, 5 -toothed, 

 and male or barren, and the outer ones filiform, or 3 -toothed, female, 

 and fertile. Keceptacle without scales. Achenes obovate, rounded or 

 narrow at the top, without any pappus. 



A numerous genus, often covering vast tracts of land in eastern 

 Europe and central Asia, and extending over nearly the whole of the 

 northern hemisphere from the Arctic regions to the borders of the 

 tropics. 



Stems spreading, much branched. Segments of the leaves 

 narrow-linear or subulate. 



Stem and leaves cottony white. Involucres narrow-ovoid, or 

 cylindrical, cottony 2. A. maritima. 



Stem and leaves green or reddish. Involucres ovoid, glabrous 1. A. campestris. 

 Flowering stems or branches tall and erect. Segments of the 

 leaves flat, broadly linear, or lanceolate. 



Leaves green above, white underneath, with pointed segments . 3. A. vulgaris. 



Leaves silky, whitish on both sides, with obtuse segments . 4. A. Absinthium. 



The shrubby Southernwood and the Tarragon of our gardens are species 

 of Artemisia; the latter (A. Dracunculus) is one of the very few species 

 in which the leaves are not dissected. 



1. A. campestris, Linn. (fig. 536). Field A— Stock herbaceous and 

 hard, or shrubby, low, and branched ; the annual branches twiggy, very 

 spreading or procumbent, a foot long or more, nearly glabrous, often 

 turning red. Leaves small, once or twice pinnate, with few very 

 narrow-linear segments, green, at least on the upper side. Flower- 

 heads small, ovoid, in numerous loose spikes or racemes, forming a 

 long leafy panicle. Involucre not cottony, containing 5 or 6 outer 

 female florets, and about as many central male or barren ones. 



In heaths, and dry, sandy, or stony wastes, widely spread over Europe 

 and temperate Asia, extending far into Scandinavia. In Britain, almost 

 peculiar to a small tract of country in the north-west of Suffolk and 

 adjacent portion of Norfolk. Fl. autumn. 



2. A. maritima, Linn. (fig. 537). Sea A. — A much branched, decum- 

 bent or nearly erect undershrub, more or less covered with a close white 

 cotton. Leaves twice pinnate, with narrow-linear segments, shorter 

 and more compact than in A. campestris. Flower-heads small, narrow- 

 ovoid or nearly cylindrical, erect or drooping, each containing from 3 

 to 5 or 6 florets, all tubular and fertile. 



In sandy and muddy wastes, generally near the sea, occupying large 

 tracts of country near the Caspian and Black Seas, and extending round 

 the Mediterranean, and along the Atlantic, up to the coasts of Britain, 

 as far as Wigton on the west, and Aberdeen on the east ; N.E. Ireland, 

 and Channel Islands. Fl. autumn. [Two very different looking forms 

 occur, often intermixed: A. maritima t L., with shortly pedicelled 

 drooping heads ; and A. gallica, Willd., with nearly sessile spiked 

 heads.] 



3. A. vulgaris, Linn. (fig. 538). Mugwort. — Stock thick and woody, 



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