s 6 . [ 946 ]
GN APH ALIUM germanicum.
Common Cudweed.
SYNGENESIA Polygamia-fup erjlua.
G en. C h a r . Recept. naked. Down rough or feathery.
Cal. imbricated; with coloured membranous fcales.
Florets of the radius awl-fhaped. Some florets
of the difk occafionally abortive.
S pec. C har. Stem eredl, proliferous. Leaves lanceolate.
Heads globofe, many-flowered, lateral
as well as terminal.
S y n . Gnaphalium germanicum. Sm. FI. Brit. 874.
Hudf. 36a. With. 7x6. Hull. 184.
G. minus, feu Herba impia. Raii Syn. 180.
■ Filago gcrmanica. Linn. Sp. PI. 1311. Relb. 327.
Sibth. 262. Abbot. 189.
D R Y gravelly or fandy fields produce this plant in abundance.
Its firft flowers appear in June or July, but its repeatedly
branching Hem bears a fucceffion o f frefh ones to the
end o f autumn.
Root annual, fmall. Stems at firft a fpan high, ere£t and
Ample, leafy and woolly, terminated by a folitary round feflile
head o f numerous flowers : but two or more branches foon
fpring from under this head, point upward, flower, and branch
in a familar manner, fo that the offspring as it were exalting
itfelf above the parent has given occafion to the ingenious
name o f Herba impia, or W ick ed Cudweed. Leaves numerous,
alternate, eredf, lanceolate, waved, woolly on both fides.
Flowers fpreading in every direction, cylindrical. Calyx-
leaves brownifli, Ihining, tapering, fmooth, with a green rib.
Florets pale y e llow ; the hermaphrodite only 2 or. 3 ; female
feveral, very {lender; both kinds producing perfect feed,
crowned by rough down.
T h e name Cudweed has arifen from a fuppofed power in
this herb to provoke rumination in c a ttle ; and its dry woolly
fubftance, when taken into the throat, is not unlikely to have
fuch an effe£l.
OlPi. 1801 fuolttlidfy ffjcrwe/-dy $*&***