SL - [ 1193 ]
GNAPHALIUM supinum.
D w a r f Cudweed.
SYNGENESIA Polygamia-superflua.
G en. Char. Recept. naked. Down rough or feathery.
Cal. imbricated; with coloured membranous scales.
Florets of the radius awl-shaped. Some florets of
the disk occasionally abortive.
Spec. Char. Stem decumbent, simple, racemose.
Flowers few. Leaves linear-lanceolate, downy on
both sides.
Syn. Gnaphalium supinum. Linn. Syst. Nat. ed. 12.
v. 3. 234. Sm. FI. Brit. 871. Buds. 361. With. 714.
Hull. 183. Dicks. H. Sicc. flasc. 2. 17.
G. alpinum. Lightf. 470. t. 20. f . 2.
F O U N D on the summits o f the Scottish alps in a micaceous
soil, flowering in July. Mr. Lightfoot, not adverting to the
description o f this plant in the appendix to the Syst. Nat.,
took it, with some hesitation, for G. alpinum o f Linnæus, a
species much more resembling the dioicum, and not yet noticed
in Britain. Linnæus for some time, neglected the plant now
under consideration, as a dwarf variety o f G. sylvaticum.
I t has a perennial creeping blackish root. Stems 2, 3, or
4 inches long, simple, slender, leafy, a little woolly, seldom
quite erect, and often nearly prostrate. Leaves alternate,
linear-lanceolate, entire, narrow, more or less woolly on both
sides. Flowers few, in a simple loose leafy cluster; sometimes
in dwarf plants solitary; erect, rather larger than in G. sylvaticum,
t. 913, or rectum, t. 124 ; the calyx-scales are also
longer, sharper, and o f a paler more uniform brown than in
those species. Florets all fertile. Seeds compressed, polished
Receptacle reticulated.