444 



THE COMPOSITE FAMILY. 



or 3 branches, each ending in a similar 

 cluster. Leaves erect, lanceolate or 

 linear, pointed or obtuse, sometimes, 

 slightly spathulate ; those under the 

 clusters shorter or rather longer than 

 the clusters themselves. Flower-heads 

 very small, about 12 to 20 or 30 in each 

 cluster; the involucres ovoid-conical, 

 more or less angular, of a pale-yellow or 

 brown ; the bracts usually acute. Florets 

 shorter than the involucres ; the outer 

 filiform ones mostly concealed among 

 the scales of the receptacle (or inner 

 bracts of the involucre), with a few, chief- 

 ly tubular, in the centre, without scales. 

 . In dry pastures, and stony or sandy 

 wastes, over the whole of Europe and 

 western Asia except the extreme north. 

 Abundant in England, rather less so in 

 Scotland. Fl. the whole summer. It 

 has been subdivided into several sup- 

 posed species, upon characters derived from the shorter or longer, 

 and more or less obtuse or acute floral leaves, from the quantity of 

 cotton on the involucres, and from their obtuse or acute bracts. 



Fig. 528. 



8. Field Cudweed. G-naphalium arvense, "Willd. (Fig. 529.) 

 (G. minimum, Eng. Bot. t. 1157. Filago minima, Brit. Fl.) 



A much more slender and smaller an- 

 nual than the common C, which it other- 

 wise resembles in foliage and mode of 

 growth. It is more irregularly branched 

 at the top, the leaves smaller, the clus- 

 ters of flower-heads smaller and more 

 numerous, each consisting of from 3 to 

 10 minute conical heads. Involucres cot- 

 tony at the base, shining at the tips, and 

 only one or jtw r o outer rows of filiform 

 florets are amongst the scales of the 

 receptacle. 



In fields, and stony or sandy wastes, 

 with a wider range than that of the 

 common C, extending all across Russian 

 Asia, and more common in the north, al- 

 though not an Arctic plant. In Britain, 

 I , - ,_, > it has been observed in a few localities 



