THALAMIFLORZE 59 
The usual habitat of this essentially wayside plant 
is waste or bare ground, where it has not to compete 
with the lustier grasses. Garden ground, cultivated 
fields, cornfields, farmyards and stackyards, village 
greens and walks are the places in which to look for 
this follower of man and the plough. It is particularly 
abundant, because the pods with many seeds are 
numerous, and it is an almost perennial flowering 
species. Where it grows in large numbers it is an 
interesting occupation to note the numerous varieties 
or forms or mutations that occur, based upon changes 
in the character of the leaves and the pods. Indeed, 
several named varieties are known, but not generally 
differentiated. 
This is a particularly good example of a plant 
having the rosette habit. The radical leaves are 
arranged stellately around the base of the plant, 
usually lying flat upon the ground, and the stem is 
central and erect. 
The root-leaves are pinnatifid or entire, the 
terminal lobe longer, hairy, the upper leaves arrow- 
shaped and entire. The stem is single, or branched, 
with terminal flowers, erect. ~ 
The flowers are white, or tinged with purple at 
first, on short stalks, single. The calyx is membranous 
at the margin. The petals exceed the spreading 
calyx. The pod is cuneate, consisting of two valves 
with a short style and unwinged. 
The Shepherd’s Purse is usually a foot in height, 
_but sometimes eighteen inches. 
