420 



THE COMPOSITE FAMILY. 



ligulate florets, besides the microscopical but constant character de- 

 rived from the tailless anthers. 



1. Common Goldenrod. Solidago Virga-aurea, Linn. 



(Fig. 498.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 301.) 



Stock more or less tufted. Stems 

 erect, stiff, nearly simple, 6 inches to 2 

 feet high, glabrous or minutely downy. 

 Radical leaves obovate and stalked, 

 stem-leaves oblong or lanceolate, slightly 

 toothed, shortly tapering at the base. 

 Mower-heads crowded in a narrow-ob- 

 long terminal panicle often leafy at the 

 base, not large, of a bright yellow, each 

 with a spreading ray of about 10 or 12 

 florets, and about twice that number of 

 tubular ones in the disk. 



In woods, very common throughout 

 Europe, and central and Russian Asia, 

 and northern America, to the Arctic re- 

 gions. Abundant in Britain. Fl. sum- 

 mer and autumn. 



Several North American species have 

 been long cultivated in our flower-gar- 

 dens, and among them the S. lanceolata 

 to have occasionally established itself in their vicinity. 



Fig. 498. 



is said 



VII. INULE. INULA. 



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. Receptacle 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 Goldenrod by the tails of the anthers ; but these, though 



