438 



THE COMPOSITE FAMILY. 



4. Wormwood Artemisia. Artemisia Absinthium, Linn. 



(Fig. 521.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 1230. Wormwood or Absinth.) 



Stock short, but branched and leafy, 

 sometimes almost woody ; the flower- 

 ing stems erect and hard but annual, 

 1 to 2 feet high ; the whole plant of a 

 greyish-white, with a very close al- 

 most silky down. Leaves almost orbi- 

 cular in their general outline, but 

 much cut into oblong-linear, obtuse 

 lobes. Flower-heads numerous, droop- 

 ing, nearly hemispherical, and larger 

 than in the other British species ; the 

 outer bracts narrow-linear, the inner 

 ones very broad. Central florets nume- 

 rous and mostly fertile; the outer fe- 

 male ones small and often barren. 



On roadsides and waste places, over 

 the greater part of Europe and Russian 

 Asia, but in many cases introduced only, 

 having been formerly much cultivated 

 for its bitter qualities. In Britain it ap- 

 pears truly indigenous near the sea in many parts of England and 

 southern Scotland ; in the interior it is confined to the neighbour- 

 hood of villages and habitations. Fl. autumn. 



Fig. 521. 



XVI. CUDWEED. GNAPHALIUM. 



Herbs, more or less covered with a grey or white, cottony wool ; the 

 leaves narrow and entire. Flower-heads small, sessile, often clustered, 

 rarely forming terminal corymbs. Involucral bracts imbricated, cot- 

 tony outside, and more or less dry, scarious, and often coloured at the 

 tips. Receptacle small, without scales. Florets of the centre tubular, 

 but often barren; those of the circumference filiform and female, or 

 the two kinds separated in different heads. Anthers with minute 

 bristles or hair-like points at their base. Style of Senecio. Achenes 

 with a pappus of simple hairs. 



If taken in its integrity, this genus is one of the most extensive 

 among Composites, and the widest-diffused over the globe. It has been, 



