436 



THE COMPOSITE FAMILY. 



Stem and leaves green or reddish. Involucres ovoid, 



glabrous 1. Field A. 



Flowering stems or branches tall and erect. Segments of the 

 leaves flat, broadly linear, or lanceolate. 



Leaves green above, white underneath, with pointed seg- 

 ments . 3. Common A. 



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



The shrubby Southernwood and the Tar agon 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. Field Artemisia. Artemisia campestris, Linn. (Fig. 518.) 



(Eng. Bot. t, 338.) 



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 fe- 

 male 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 Scan- 

 dinavia. In Britain, almost peculiar to 

 a small tract of country in the north- 

 west of Suffolk and adjacent portion of 

 Norfolk. Fl. autumn. 



Fig. 518. 



2. Sea Artemisia. Artemisia maritima, Linn. (Fig. 519.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 1706, and A. gallica, Eng. Bot. t. 1001.) 



A much branched, decumbent 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 the field A. 



