422 



THE COMPOSITE FAMILY. 



2. Samphire Inule. Inula crithmoid.es, Linn. (Fig. 500.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 68. Golden Samphire.) 



A glabrous, erect perennial, about a 

 foot high or rather more. Leaves nume- 

 rous, linear, thick and succulent, entire 

 or with one or two small teeth at the 

 base. Flower-heads not large, solitary 

 on the short branches of a short, leafy 

 panicle. Involucral bracts numerous 

 and narrow. Florets of the ray bright- 

 yellow and spreading, not so narrow or 

 so numerous as in the other species, yet 

 twice as many as in the common Golden- 

 rod. 



In salt-marshes, in western Europe, 

 and all round the Mediterranean ; fre- 

 quent on the southern and western coasts 

 of Britain up to Kirkcudbright and Wig- 

 ton, both in salt-marshes and on dry 

 maritime limestone rocks. Fl. summer 

 and autumn. 



Fig. 500. 



3. Rigid Inule. Inula Conyza, DC. (Fig. 501.) 

 {Conyza squarrosa, Eng. Bot. t. 1195. Ploughman s Spikenard.) 



A hard, erect biennial, 2 to 3 feet 

 high, covered with a short down, rough 

 on the stem, soft and cottony on the 

 under side of the leaves. Leaves ovate- 

 lanceolate, the lower ones stalked, the 

 upper sessile. Flower-heads numerous, 

 in a terminal corymb. Involucres ovoid ; 

 the bracts numerous, the outer ones tip- 

 ped with green, the inner linear, reddish, 

 and erect. Outer florets numerous but 

 very small, their purple styles alone pro- 

 truding beyond the involucre, so that the 

 plant appears at first sight to have no 

 ray. 



In hedges and open woods, on banks 

 and roadsides, in central and southern 

 Europe to the Caucasus, extending north- 

 wards into Denmark, but not into north- 



Fig. 501. 



