142 THE STORY’ OF /PLANT Lage 
leaves being coarsely toothed. The petioles are con- 
cave, subangular, and furrowed. 
The flowers are in raceme-like heads and borne on 
stout peduncles, the bracts slender, the phyllaries 
not so long as the flowers, which are purple and 
enclosed by the long hooked scales. 
Burdock grows to a height of 3 to 4 ft. It flowers 
in July and August. 
The corolla is fairly wide and has erect triangular 
teeth. 
Honey fills the tube half way. Stigmatic papille 
cover the inner surface of the branches of the style, 
the outer surface being violet and covered with short 
sharp hairs directed obliquely upwards. Where the 
style divides the hairs are continuous for a short 
distance, terminating in a tuft of long hairs. The 
style projects below the ring of longer hairs, the stig- 
matic lobes being widely separated. There is little 
opportunity, therefore, for the flower to be self-polli- 
nated. Bumble bees, etc., visit it. 
The seeds are provided with pappus and can be 
dispersed by the wind, and the long hooks of the 
seed-head catch in the hair of animals and are dis- 
tributed also by their agency. 
There are no other common names for Burdock. 
Formerly it was used as a remedy for rheumatism. 
CREEPING THISTLE (Cmicus arvensis). 
To the farmer this common pest of fields, meadow 
or pasture, or of the cornfield, is well known as one 
