DESCRIPTION OF MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
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Silphium laciniatum, L. Rosin-weed. Compass-plant. Coarse 
and tall, rough perennial herb with copious, resinous juice, 
the terete, alternate-leaved stem from a very large and thick 
root. Rough-bristly throughout, stem 3-12° high, leafy; 
leaves pinnately parted, petioled, but dilated and clasping at 
the base; their divisions lanceolate or linear, acute, cut-lobed 
or pinnatifid, rarely entire; heads few 1-2' broad, sessile or 
short- peduncled along the naked summit ; scales ovate, taper- 
ing into long and spreading rigid points; aehenes broadly 
winged and deeply notched, 6" long. July. Lower and root- 
leaves vertical, 12-30' long, ovate in outline, disposed to pre- 
sent their edges north and south ; hence called compass plant. 
Apparently not common in this State. The fluid extract of 
the herb is used. 
Silphium perfoliatum, L. Cup-plant. Coarse and tall, rough 
perennial ; stem square; leaves opposite, connate, 6-15' long^ 
ovate, coarsely toothed, the upper united by their bases and 
forming a cup-shaped disk, the lower abruptly narrowed into 
winged petioles which are connate by their bases ; heads co- 
rymbose; scales ovate ; aehenes winged and variously notched. 
Loamy soil, along streams. Nashville, Franklin pike beyond 
reservoir. FI. July-August. The root is used. 
Gnaphalium polycephalum, Michx. Common Everlasting. An 
humble annual weed of a dull gray color. Grows from 
8'— 2° high, slender, erect, woolly, slightly fragrant; leaves 
lanceolate, tapering at the base, with undulate margins, not 
decurrent, smoothish above ; heads clustered at the summit 
of the panicled-corymbose branches, ovate-conical before 
expansion, then obovate. Scales of the involucre whitish 
ovate and oblong, rather obtuse. Corolla whitish, insignifi- 
cant. Pastures and old fields, especially in new clearings 
with the next. FI. July-October. The herb. 
Gnaphalium decurrens, Ives. Mouse- ear. Very similar to the 
foregoing and collectable for the same. More stout, erect, 
1-2° high, annual or biennial, branched at the top, clammy- 
pubescent, white-woolly on the branches, bearing numerous 
