144 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 
bracts are appressed, ciliate, the tips rigid and spinose, 
the outer having spreading spines, the inner obtuse, 
acuminate. 
The fruit is smooth and shining. The pappus is 
dirty white. 
There are a hundred florets in each head. The tube 
is long, campanulate above, the five diverging lobes 
being linear. The florets at the side turn outwards. 
They form a flowerhead of some width, rendering the 
plant conspicuous, the honey rising high in the tube. 
Short-lipped insects can easily reach it. As many as 
eighty-eight species were noticed by Muller. 
The seed, being provided with a pappus, is blown 
away by the wind in parachute fashion. 
SPEAR THISTLE (Cnicus lanceolatus). 
This handsome thistle with its lanceolate, spear- 
like leaves is a universal plant in Great Britain. 
Though it grows commonly in fields, meadow and 
pasture, it is also found on cultivated land, in corn- 
fields and where plants are carried by farming opera- 
tions from the field to the farmyard, stackyard, or 
the neighbourhood of houses, by the wayside, where 
standing alone it is a stately and handsome plant. 
The well-marked root-leaves may be detected in 
spring spreading in a stellate manner upon some 
hedgebank, where it vies with Nipplewort, the Teasel, 
and the hedgerow umbellifers such as Hogweed for 
pride of place. . 
