COMPOSITE. 137 
GENUS XXXIV— H ELMINTHIA. Jitas. 
Anthodcs many-flowered. Pericline oblong-ovoid, with 2 series 
of phyllaries ; those of the inner series imbricated, those of the 
outer few, broader, often foliaceous, nearly as long as the inner. 
Clinanth naked. Achenes elliptical-ovoid, compressed, transversely 
rugose, terminated by a slender beak about as long as the achene. 
Pappus deciduous, of pure-white slender silky plumose hairs; the 
mdary hairs not interwoven. 
Scabrous almost prickly herbs, with dichotomously-branched 
stems, the exterior ones usually red on the back. Florets yellow. 
The Greek words which give a name to this genus of plants are eX/iivOoc (elminthos), 
of a worm, and 6i]kt) (theke), a case, from a fancied resemblance in the seeds. 
SPECIES I.— HELMINTHTA ECHIOIDES. Gdrtn. 
Plate DCCXCVII. 
Billot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 47. 
■h. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XIX. Tab. MCCCLXXVIII. 
Ficris echioides, Linn. Sin. Eng. Bot. No. 972. 
Biennial. Stem erect, hirsute. Radical and lower leaves oblong- 
oblanceolate or oblanceolate ; upper ones lanceolate, amplexicaul ; 
all with white warts and prickle-like bristles and hairs. Anthodes 
in an irregularly-dichotomous corymbose cyme. Pericline with the 
outer phyllaries 3 to 5 in number, ovate-acuminate, cordate at the 
base, bristly-spiny on the margins. Achenes transversely striated, 
terminated by a long slender deciduous beak. 
In waste places, by roadsides, and in cultivated fields. Rather 
local, though pretty generally distributed over England. About 
r>»T\vick-on-Tweed and Tynefield, near Dunbar, in Scotland, but 
perhaps introduced there. 
England, Scotland (?), Ireland. Biennial or annual. Late 
Summer and Autumn. 
Radical leaves lying flat on the ground in a rosette, bearing 
some resemblance to the young leaves of Echium vulgare, irre- 
gularly sprinkled with unequal white tubercles, from which stiff 
bristles or weak prickles spring. Stem irregularly dichotomously 
branched, rou<?h with hooked hairs. Lower stem-leaves oblanceo- 
lato, and all except the lowest dilated and auriclcd at the base, the 
uppermost of all tapering from the base to the apex ; all coarsely 
dentate or repand-dentate, and ciliated with stiff bristles. Outer 
phyllaries very large, nearly concealing the inner ones, but not quite 
vol. v. T 
