450 



THE COMPOSITE FAMILY. 



6. Ragwort Senecio. Senecio Jacobsea, Linn. (Fig. 53G.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 1130, not good.) 



Hootstock short and thick, without 

 creeping shoots. Stems 2 to 4 feet high, 

 erect, scarcely branched except at the 

 top. Leaves pinnate, with ovate, ob- 

 ovate, or narrow segments, coarsely- 

 toothed or pinnatifid, the terminal ones 

 large and confluent, the lower ones 

 smaller and distinct, all glabrous, or with 

 a loose, woolly down, especially on the 

 under side. Flower-heads rather large, 

 of a bright-yellow, in a handsome, com- 

 pact terminal corymb. Involucral bracts 

 tipped with black, the outer ones few, 

 and very small. Florets of the ray from 

 12 to 15, linear-oblong and spreading. 

 Achenes of the disk covered with short 

 hairs, those of the ray glabrous. 



On roadsides, in waste places, and 

 bushy pastures, all over Europe and Rus- 

 sian Asia, except the extreme north. Very 

 common in Britain. Fl. summer, lasting 

 till late. When eaten down, or checked in its growth, it will often assume 

 the spreading inflorescence of the water S., when it can only be dis- 

 tinguished by inspection of the achenes. 



Fig. 536. 



7. Narrow-leaved Senecio. Senecio erucaefolius, Linn. 

 (Fig. 537.) 



(S. tenuifolius, Eng. Bot. 574.) 



Very near theltdgwort S., but appears everywhere distinct. It is fully 

 as tall, and has the same inflorescence and flower-heads, but the root- 

 stock is shortly creeping, the leaves are much more regularly divided 

 into narrower segments, the terminal ones not very different from the 

 others, and the achenes of the ray as hairy as those of the disk. The 

 whole plant is generally more or less covered with a loose cottony 

 down. 





