COMPOSITE FAMILY 



THE LEAVES: alternate; cordate or ovate; usually thick; 

 rough on both sides; with short hairs beneath; acute or 

 acuminate at the apex; with margined petioles which are 

 broadened and clasping at the base; dentate, undulate or 

 entire. 



THE FLOWER HEADS: in racemes, often growing on one 

 side only of the spreading branches, nearly one inch broad; 

 involucre broadly top-shaped; rays, eight to fifteen. 



THE FRUIT: achenes; pappus whitish. 



The Aster undulatus is a fairly tall plant, whose flowers 

 closely resemble those of the patens. Its never-failing mark 

 of distinction is the peculiar shape of the leaf-stem. The 

 leaf is slightly indented at the base, then slips into the 

 flattened petiole, which, at first contracted, soon broadens 

 out to clasp the stem with more or less heart-shaped lobes. 



COMPOSITE COMPOSITE FAMILY 



Erigeron canadensis, L. 



Greenish-white Horse-weed, Bitter-weed, 



Cow's Tail, Blood-staunch, 



Colt's Tail, Hogweed, 



Fleabane, Fireweed. 



Erigeron: ancient Greek name, probably suggesting spring, 

 and an old man, from the hoariness of the seed-vessel 

 of some of the species. 



Canadensis: Latin for Canadian. 



THE PREFERRED HABITAT: barnyards and neglected fields. 



THE PLANT: erect, three inches to ten inches high, the 

 larger plants paniculately, much branched; the stem wand- 

 like, with rough hairs or practically hairless. 



THE LEAVES: alternate; the root leaves differing from the 

 stem leaves. The basal and lower leaves being spatulate, 



395 



