Polymnia
(dedicated to the muse Polyhymnia, for no obvious reason, the species being coarse and inelegant). Leaf-cup. ORD. Compositae. A genus comprising about a dozen species of greenhouse or hardy, glabrous, scabrous-pubescent or villous, often slightly viscid, perennial herbs, shrubs, or trees, natives of America, from Bonaria to Canada. Flower-heads yellow or yellowish, heterogamous, rather large, mediocre, or small, corymbosely paniculate; achenes glabrous; involucre hemispherical or expanded, with two-seriate bracts; receptacle flat. Leaves opposite, or the upper ones alternate, often ample, entire, angulate, or lobed. The species best known to cultivation are described below. They are very useful for sub-tropical gardening in the South of England. A warm position and deep, rich soil are essential elements in their culture. Propagated freely, in spring, by divisions; by cuttings, struck in sand, in a gentle heat, during January; or by seeds, sown in heat, at the same time.
P. canadensis (Canadian). fl.-heads whitish-yellow, small; rays few, obovate or wedge-shaped, shorter than the involucre. July. l., lower ones deeply pinnatifid, the uppermost ones triangular-ovate, and three to five-lobed or angled, petioled. h. 6ft. North America, 1768. Hardy herbaceous perennial. P. edulis (edible). fl.-heads yellow. A tall, coarse-growing, hardy perennial, cultivated in the Andean region for the sake of its edible tubers. P. grandis (large). A synonym of Montanoa bipinnatifida. P. heracleifolia (Heracleum-leaved). A synonym of Montanoa bipinnatifida. P. pyramidalis (pyramidal). fl.-heads having a yellow ray and a dark brown disk, disposed in cymes. Summer and autumn. l. cordate-ovate, 12in. long by 16in. broad, with decurrent petioles. h. 10ft. A free and rapid-growing, half-hardy, arborescent perennial, something like the Sunflower in habit. New Grenada, 1867. (R. H. 1867, 210.) P. Uvedalia (Uvedalia) fl.-heads yellow; rays ten to fifteen, linear-oblong, much longer than the inner scales of the involucre; outer involucral scales very large. September. l. broadly ovate, angled and toothed, nearly sessile; lower ones palmately lobed, abruptly narrowed into a winged petiole. h. 4ft. to 10ft. United States, 1699. Hardy herbaceous perennial.
