192 FLOWERS Ol- WASTE PLACES, ETC. 



Burdock (Arctium minus, Ik-rnh.) 



Hardv and dominant, this plant has not been recognized in the 

 early deposits preceding the present day. 



It is confined to the Temperate Zone, and found in Europe, and 

 N. anil W. Asia. It is introduced in X. .\mcrica. In Great Britain 

 it is absent in N. Devon, in the Peninsula province; X. Hants, in 

 the Channel province; E. Kent, in the Thames province; Iicdford, 

 in Anglia; W. Gloucs, Worcester, in the Severn province; in Wales, 

 in Glamorgan, Pembroke, Cardigan, Carnarvon, Denbigh, Anglesea. 

 In the Trent province it occurs in Leicester and Derby; in die 

 Mersev province, not in Mid Lanes; in the Humber province, not 

 in S.I*!. or N.W. Yorkshire; in the Tyne province, in Cumberland; 

 not in Renfrew and Lanark in W. Lowlands; in Berwick, Haddington, 

 Edinburgh, Linlithoow, Fife, West Perth, Forfar, S. and N. Aberdeen, 

 Banff, Elgin, Easterness, Clyde Is.. W. Highlands except Dumbarton, 

 Ross, W^ Sutherland, Hebrides as far north as Skye. 



Burdock is a common weed found in waste places and on the 

 borders of cultivated fields. It owes its wide distribution to its hardi- 

 hood, and in the struggle for existence ousts, like many Docks and 

 other quick-growing and sturdy plants, the smaller tenderer species. 



This plant is tall and erect in habit. The species, as denoted by 

 the specific name [mitms), has leaves and flowerheads not so large as 

 those of the other species. 



The central stem is nodding, and with the branches bears scattered 

 small heads, the terminal one being solitary. The leaves are heart- 

 shaped, large, stalked, the radical leaves being coarsely toothed. The 

 leaf-slalks are hollow, slightly angular, nearly round in section, and 

 slightly furrowed. 



The rtowerheads are in a corymbose raceme on short stalks, 

 globular, cottony, greenish, webbed in fruit, are slightly contracted 

 at the mouth, and are not umbilicate. The phyllaries are not so long 

 as the tlorets, awl-like, the inner row as long and gradually awl-like, 

 more or less cylindrical. The upper part of the floret is as long as 

 the lower. The fruit is brown with black blotches. 



This plant may be 3-4 ft. high. It flowers in July and August. 

 Lesser Burdock is biennial, and reproduced by seeds. 



The tube of the corolla is narrow, the limb bell -shaped, with 

 5 slender lobes. The filaments are papillose. There is a long 

 terminal appendage to the anthers, and the cells have a slender 



