COMMON BURDOCK 



masses of green globes, about the size of marbles, 

 speckled and spotted with purpUsh points, rarely 

 white, and each point is an individual flower with pur- 

 ple anthers and white pollen. Beneath each floret is 

 a spiny, hooked bract which protects it. Country 

 children play with these Httle balls, making them into 

 baskets and furniture, regardless of their unpleasant 

 odor. 



The Burdock scores its great success in the late 

 autumn, actually becoming more powerful dead than 

 alive. We may as well remain at attention for a while 

 and see what really happens. The plant dies when 

 the blooming season is over and finally becomes an 

 unpleasant, brown group of gaunt, stiff stalks loaded 

 with a mass of brown, spherical burrs, with Httle hooks 

 on every side that lay hold of every dog, sheep, cow, 

 or human being that comes within reach. We find 

 our clothes laden, our coUie comes in after an excursion 

 beseeching for help, the cows' tails are loaded with 

 burrs, and the sheep are helpless. Moreover these 

 burrs will not let go, forcibly removed from one place, 

 they seize upon another, and the outcome is that man, 

 dog, cow, and sheep are busily engaged in distributing, 

 altogether against their will, the seeds of a plant they 

 detest. The leaves are bitter and so avoided by 

 grazing animals. The plant is best eradicated by 

 persistent cutting— it should never be permitted to 

 bloom, much less to go to seed, and in time it becomes 

 discouraged. Professor Bailey says that the plant is 

 cultivated in Japan for its root and is there known as 

 Gobo. 



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