BURS AND BEGQAR'S-TICKS. 



71 



fall into numerous 

 flattened seedlike bod- 

 ies, or achenia, eacli 

 one "of which is 

 crowned with two or 

 more stiff, needlelike, 

 and barbed awns. Few 

 " stickers " are more 

 annoying than these 

 " beggar's-ticks " of 

 the bur - marigold. 

 There is not a patch of 

 low tangle that is not 

 full of them, and one 

 can scarcely pass by 

 such places without 

 bearing away a closely 

 clinging horde of the 



pests. In the drier 



woods of the uplands 



a familiar species of 



bur-marigold is abun- 



dant, with longer and more slender achenia, which are known as 



" Spanish needles." 



Among the larger burs that 

 gather on us in the fall are 

 those of two composite plants 

 — the burdock and the cockle- 

 bur. They are both weeds of 

 waste places, coarse and ill- 

 looking, springing up in rank 

 abundance about pigpens, barn- 

 yard fences, and the dump 

 heaps of open lots. The re- 

 deeming virtue of the burdock 

 is its purple flower heads 

 crowning the bristly green in- 

 volucres, which in childhood 

 days were plucked to make 

 " buz-baskets." The larger and 

 coarser cocklebur, with its 



^ur. 4ffrij o7tf . 



s,-r. 



armament of strong hooks, is another of Dr. Gray's " vile weeds," 

 wrapping itself inextricably among the hair and wool of the dog or 

 sheep that unwittingly strays into its domain. 



