COMPOSITE. (composite FAMILY.) 295 



1. E. hieracif61ia, Raf. (Fire weed.) Often hairy; stem grooved 

 (1 -6° high) ; leaves lanceolate or oblong, acute, cut-toothed, sessile, the upper 

 auricled at base. — Moist woods ; common, especially northward, and in recent 

 clearings that have been burned over ; whence the popular name. July- Sept. 



78. ARCTIUM, L. Bcrdock. 



Heads many-flowered ; flowers all tubular, perfect and similar. Involucre 

 globular ; the imbricated scales coriaceous and appressed at base, attenuate to 

 long stiff points with hooked tips. Receptacle bristly. Achenes oblong, flat- 

 tened, wrinkled transversely ; pappus short, of numerous rough bristles, sepa- 

 rate and deciduous. — Coarse biennial weeds, with large unarmed and petioled 

 leaves, and small solitary or clustered heads; flowers purple, rarely white. 

 (Name probably from 6.pKTos, a bear, from the rough involucre.) 



A. Lappa, L. Stout, 1-3° high; leaves roundish or ovate and mostly 

 cordate, or lanceolate with cuneate base, smooth above, somewhat floccose- 

 tomeutose beneath, mostly sinuate-denticulate. (Lappa ofticinalis, ^4//.) — 

 The several reputed species of the genus are scarcely distinguishable even as 

 varieties. Var. minus, has rather small ovoid subracemose heads (about 8" 

 broad), on short peduncles, glabrous or somewhat cottony, the inner scales 

 somewhat purplish-tipped, equalling the flowers ; leaves occasionally cut- 

 toothed. By roadsides; very common. — Var. mXjls, with broader (1') green 

 and glabrous subcorymbose rather long-pedunculate heads. Less frequent. — 

 \'ar. tomext6sum, a form of the last with more spherical webbed heads, with 

 purplish scales shorter than the flowers. Rare. — Jnly - Oct. (Nat. from Eu.) 



79. C NIC US, Tourn. Common or Plumed Thistle. 



Heads many-flowered ; flowers all tubular, perfect and similar, rarely imper- 

 fectly diacious. Scales of the ovoid or spherical involucre imbricated in many 

 rows, tipped with a point or prickle. Receptacle thickly clothed with soft 

 bristles or hairs. Achenes oblong, flattish, not ribbed ; pappus of numerous 

 bristles united into a ring at the base, plumose to the middle, deciduous. — 

 Herbs, mostly biennial, with sessile alternate leaves, often pinnatifid, prickly. 

 Heads usually large, terminal. Flowers reddish-purple, rarely white or yel- 

 lowish ; in summer. (Latin name of the Safilower, from the Greek kvtikos.) 



* Scales of the. involacre all tipped with spreading prickhs. 



C. laxceolXtus, Hoffm. (Common Thistle.) Leaves decurrent on the 

 stem, forming prickly lobed wings, pinnatifid, rough and bristly above, woolly 

 with deciduous web])y hairs beneath, prickly ; flowers purple. (Cirsium, Scop.) 

 — Pastures and roadsides, everywhere, at the North. (Nat. from Eu.) 



* * Heads leafii-hracteate at base (see also n. 8) ; proper scales not prickl//. 



1. C. horridulus, Pursh. (Yellow Thistle.) Stem stout (1 -3° higbi 

 webby-haired when young ; leaves partly clasping, green, soon smooth, lanceo 

 late, pinnatifid, the short toothed and cut lobes very spiny with yellowish 

 prickles; heads (1 - l^' broad) surrounded by leaf-like and very prickly bracts, 

 which usually equal the narrow scales ; flowers pale yellow or purple. (Cirsium, 

 Michx.) — Sandy fields, Mass. to Va., and southward, near the coast. 



* * * Scales appressed, the inner not at all prickly. 



•«- Leaves white-woollij beneath, and sometimes also above : outer scales succes- 

 sively shorter, and tipped with short prickles. 



2. C. Pitcheri, Torr. White-woolly throughout , low : stem very leafy , 

 leaves all pinnately parted into rigid narrowly linear and elongated, sometimes 



