170 TYPES OF BRITISH PLANTS 
numbers. We need not, therefore, be surprised when we 
find them very numerous in our British Flora; in fact, 
they are almost too numerous for the beginner in collect- 
ing, for there is no small difficulty in distinguishing the 
various species from one another. The thistles may pretty 
soon be mastered and distinguished, but the hawk-weeds 
are an abiding puzzle. There are many of them, all much 
alike, and to make matters worse, each species varies a 
good deal in habit, according to the soil; so questions 
of size are of no great help. However, they are well 
worth your patience, and careful comparison with the 
ordinary books of all the specimens you can find will 
soon put you at home with them. Remember especially 
that you need for identification some of the lower leaves 
as well as the flower-stalk and flower. 
Before we examine the true composites I want you 
to look at two flowers 
which foreshadow their ar- 
rangement, the Teasel and 
the Scabious. Here we have 
close - crowded heads _ of 
many minute flowers, the 
separate flower-stalks hav- 
ing disappeared. In the 
Teasel, these flowers form 
a fine, purple, egg - shaped 
mass, several of which are 
usually borne upon a plant. 
The calyx of each floweret 
is quite small, and the sepals 
have been economised into 
bristles, whilst the heads 
TEASEL FLOWER. are further protected by 
