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S E N E C I O vulgaris*
Common GroundfeL
S YNG E NESIA Polygamia-fuperßua.
G en. C har. Rtcep. naked. Down Ample. Cal
cylindrical, many-leaved, equal, fcaly at the bafe;
fcales dead at the tip.
S pec. Char. Flowers without a radius, fcattered.
' -Leaves finuated in a pinnate form, toothed, embracing
the ftem.
Syn. Senecio vulgaris. Linn. Sp. PI. 1216. Sm. FL
Brit. 881. Hudf. 365. With. 721. Hull. 186.
Rdh. 315. Sibth. 252. A llo t. 182. Curt. Lond.
fafi. I. t. 61. Rail Syn. 178.
E v e r y one knows the Common Groundfel, a weed found
in all kinds of cultivated ground, as well as on banks by road-
fides, and fimilar places. It is annual, and flowers almoft all
the year round. The flower-buds and young tops are the food
of many fmall birds, and are given to Canary-birds and others
in a ftate of confinement. In feveral parts of England it h
called Simfon, apparently a corruption of the Latin Senecio,
perhaps through the medium of the French SeneJJon.
The herb varies in fize, and is either altogether fmooth, or
flightly clothed with foft hairs and a kind of cottony down,
efpecially the backs of the leaves. The colour of the leaves is
a bright fhining green, and their fmell merely herbaceous,
without any very peculiar odour. Flowers terminal, fomewhat
panicled. All the fcales of the calyx very confpicuoufly withered,
and black at the tip. Corolla compofed of yellow tubular hermaphrodite
fertile florets, without any radiating ones, fo that
this fpecies ftriétly belongs to the firft order of Syngenefia.
Seeds furrowed, pubefcent. Down which crowns the feed
feflile, rough.