264 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



The habitat is waste places, fields and roadsides, 

 as on the Watling Street in Central England. 



The habit is tufted or caespitose, forming a dense 

 bush. The stems are thick, the whole plant pale 

 green. The radical leaves are ternate, or two or 

 three times divided nearly to the base, the lobes 

 lance-shaped, wavy, coarsely toothed, stalked, spinous, 

 the stem-leaves clasping, pinnate, with three to five 

 leaflets. The leaf-stalks are thick, channelled, half 

 round in section. 



The florets form a cymose head, and are numerous, 

 small, purplish or white, the involucral leaves lance- 

 shaped, spinous, pinnately toothed, the scale within 

 the heads narrow, entire. The fruit is ovoid, and 

 the seeds are flat. 



The flowers are in bloom in July and August, and 

 the plant is a herbaceous biennial, i to 2 ft. in 

 height. 



The honey is concealed and secreted by a disk, 

 which is ten-rayed, at the base of the flower. The 

 petals are bent over and protect the honey. The 

 flowers are conspicuous and rendered more so by the 

 whorl of bracts, which are coloured and often 

 amethystine. The turned-down petals and stamens 

 are close together, but an insect can push them aside. 

 The flowers are visited by bees. The anthers ripen 

 before the stigmas so that cross-pollination is the rule. 



The fruit is not adapted to wind-dispersal, but the 

 fruits are schizocarps, and may fall when ripe a little 

 distance from the plant. 



