E U P A T O R I U M cannabinum.
Hemp-agrimony.
S Y N G E N E S I S Polygamia-aqualis.
G en. C har. Receptacle naked. Seed-down feathery.
Calyx oblong, imbricated. Style cloven half way
down, longer than the corolla.
S pec. Char. Leaves digitate.
S yn. Eupatorium cannabinum. Linn. Sp. PI. 1173.
Hudf. FI. An. 356. With. Bot. Arr. ed. 3, v. 3,
706. Relh. Cant. 309. Sihth. Ox. 249. Rail Syn. 179,
T h i s plant occurs frequently about the banks of rivers, and
other watery fpots.— It is neverthelefs found alfo in elevated
calcareous fituations, where it appears to great advantage, as at
Matlock; but always grows in a more or lefs black and boggy
foil, like the larger inhabitants of alpine meadows, Feratrum,
Gentiana, Aconitum, Cacalia, &c. It feems indeed to fupply
the place of Cacalia alpina, in fome of our mountainous thickets,
and very much agrees with that plant in habit, colour, and the
infeCts it nourifhes.
The Eupatorium flowers in July and Auguft. The root is
perennial. Stems feveral, 2 or 3 feet high, erect, branched,
roundilh, downy, leafy. Leaves oppofite, nearly feffile, deeply
divided into 3 or 5 feflile leaflets, of which the two outermoft
are fometimes a little remote from the others, by that means
forming a pinnate leaf; the leaflets are lanceolate, paler and
downy beneath, ftrongly ferrated, efpecially about the middle.
Flowers very numerous, light reddilh purple, in a thick ter-
minal cluttered corymbus. Calyx-fcales blunt, with a membranous
white or reddilh margin. Florets about 5 or 6, all
tubular, equal, regular and perfect, characterized by the projection
of their long cloven ftyles ; the filvery briftles which
crown the germen (and afterwards the feed), and which are
truly though minutely feathery, are feen feparating the florets.
Germen, as Dr. Withering remarks, fprinkled with minute
fhining globules. The whole herb is flightly aromatic.
In young plants the upper leaves are obferved to be Ample.
See Ray and Withering.