SPANISH NEEDLES 



withstanding all its beauty it is a bad weed, for 

 it belongs to the Bide7js clan. All the Bidens 

 are free riders, and well equipped to cling to 

 their steeds. The heart of this superb golden 

 flower conceals an arsenal of weapons, an armed 

 group of flat akenes, each provided with teeth 

 barbed like fish-hooks, that they may ride to 

 success and safety on two feet or four. Two 

 others of the genus are In the ditches, but they 

 have no beauty to make us forget they are always 

 armed against us. We call them Spanish 

 Needles, Sticktights, Beggar-Ticks, a General 

 Nuisance, but they do not mind. The most 

 common Is Bidens fronddsa, the other found 

 mostly in moist places Is Bidens conndta. Both 

 are dusty, rusty weeds which should be exter- 

 minated. 



SPANISH NEEDLES. BEGGAR-TICKS 



Bidens fronddsa 



Annual. A common plant of the roadside 



ditches usually one to four feet high, much 



branched, bearing pointed three to five parted 



27 



