138 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 
GROUNDSEL (Senecio vulgaris). 
Everyone knows Groundsel. Even the poor 
hawker who keeps a few birds in a cage is familiar 
with it as green food for his pets, and the gardener 
finds it a constant pest in the garden. It is in fact 
found in every part of these islands, and in Northum- 
berland grows at a height of 1000 feet. 
Groundsel grows as a rule on cultivated land where 
the earth is loose and broken and seldom in fields or 
pastures where grass is the dominant feature. It is 
thus found regularly in gardens, allotments, arable 
land, waste ground, farmyards, stackyards, along the 
highway where the earth is often broken up by the 
road-scraper, and about common waste land where 
the ground is loose and sandy, as well as by the 
sea coast. 
It has a root with numerous fibres, and a centra 
erect stem, branching above. The habit is compact 
and bushy. Thestem is smooth or downy, and there 
are numerous varieties. The leaves vary considerably, 
being pinnatifid, with square-cut segments, the lobes 
deep, as are the teeth, and they clasp the stem, or are 
stalked, especially the lower leaves. 
The heads are small, in dense racemes, yellow, in 
an involucre with small scales, the outer bracts being 
dark, very short, subulate, ovate. There are no ray 
flowers. 
Groundsel is 1 ft. in height asa rule. It flowers 
all the year round. 
