A large, woolly, perennial herb, with a stout, thick mucilaginous root. Stems stout, usually unbranched, 2 to 6 feet high and densely woolly-pubescent. Leaves alternate, rough-hairy above, densely woolly on the under surface; basal leaves large, 10 to 20 inches long, 4 to 8 inches wide, narrowed into long petioles; upper leaves sessile or clasping the stem by a heart-shaped base, smaller than the basal leaves. Heads of flowers large and showy, 2 to 4 inches broad, yellow, terminal on stout peduncles, the inflorescence consisting of few or several heads. Involucres hemispheric, nearly an inch high, their outer bracts large and almost leaflike in character. Ray flowers numerous, linear, 1 to 11/2 inches long, yellow; the disk flowers dingy yellow or brownish.

Along roadsides and in fields, Nova Scotia to Ontario and Minnesota, south to North Carolina and Missouri. Flowering from July to September. Native of Europe and naturalized in this country.

Memoir 15 N. Y. State Museum

Plate 250

Elecampane; Horseheal - Inula helenium