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MATRICARIA Chamomilla.
Wild Chamomile.
/ZA
SYNGENESIA Polygamia-superftua,
G en. C h ar. Recept. naked, almost cylindrical. Seeds
without a crown. Cal. flattish, imbricated with mem-
branous-bordered scales.
Spec. C h a r . Leaves smooth, pinnated; leaflets linear,
simple or divided. Radius spreading. Scales of
the calyx dilated.
Syn. Matricaria Chamomilla. Linn. Sp. P i. 1256.
Sm. FI. Brit. 902. Huds. 372. With. 136.
Hull. 184. Relh. 335. Sibth. 258. Abbot. 185.
Curt. Lond. fasc. 5. t. 63. Mart. FI. Rust. t. 74.
Chamsemelum. Rail Syn. 184.
T h is weed is much more, plentiful about London, where it
grows in fields, waste ground, about road sides and on dunghills,
than in Norfolk, where it rarely occurs.
The root is fibrous and annual. Stem about a foot high,
much branched and very leafy, smooth, striated. Leaves sessile,
clasping the stem, smooth, deep green, pinnated; their
leaflets narrow and linear 5 simple in the upper, pinnate in the
lower leaves; all obtuse tipped with a minute point. Flowers
numerous, terminal, solitary, about the size of the Common
or Sweet Chamomile, and partaking somewhat of its fragrance.
Calyx flattish, smooth. Disk conical, pale greenish yellow.
Radius of many white oblong florets, spreading by day, closely
deflexed at night. Seeds angular, oblique, entirely naked.
Receptacle between a conical and cylindrical form, slender,
smooth and naked; by which last circumstance this is known
at once from Anthemis arvensis, v. 9. t. 602, without adverting
to the more hoary appearance of the latter. Anthemis Cotula,
more like the Matricaria in general appearance, is distinguished
by its foetid smell, and narrow bristly scales of its receptacle.