BITTTERBUR 



lo;^ 



smooth, reddish, covered wiih a frit at the base, dnwnv iK'iieath. and 

 very lart^e. The leaf-stalks are lony, round, finely -furrowed, sheathetl 

 below, channelled, and purple. They are usually softly and loosely hairy. 



The j)lant is dioecious, with male florets and female on different 

 plants, the male tlorets bein^ rarest, and in a dense eox;-shaped 

 panicle, the female ones loose and longer, the styles of the first being 

 egg-shaped and stout, the 



female with the mouth Jt^tf^Bf ^^^'^"* 

 obliquely blunt above. 

 The tlowerheads are 

 carried on erect, stout 

 scapes, white and woolly, 

 with lance-shaped scales, 

 purple and ribbed. 



The plant is often 

 several feet high, the 

 flowering being about 

 I ft. The flowers bloom 

 in March anel April. The 

 plant is a herbaceous per- 

 ennial propagated by 

 division. 



In Pc his lies alb its the 

 plant is dicecious, and the 

 male flowerheads are more 

 conspicuous. In the fe- 

 male capitula there are 

 two kinds of florets. Only 

 some in the centre pro- 

 duce honey, and the stamens (usually absent) and pistil (with stigma 

 with short hairs) are functionless, and around these are tubular female 

 florets without honey or stamens. The male flowerheads are loose 

 and of one .sort of floret only, and possc^ss honey, and a pistil with 

 no stigma, but a style whose branches sweep the pollen out from the 

 cylinder by means of the hairs, but they possess no papilke. The 

 male capitula, with florets which are tubular below and bell -shaped 

 above, also possess some functionless florets occupying the same place 

 as the pistillate florets in the female flowerheads, which they resemble 

 in not po.ssessing a nectary or stamens, and in having a style and 

 a narrow tubular corolla. There are akso abortive female florets which, 

 in reduced numln-r and functionless condition, correspond in primitl\e 





Bi;TTF,RBi R (PctcisiU-s offiriniilis, iMoench) 



