HERBAGE-VEGETABLES 73 
Fic. 76.—Lettuce. Plant in flower and fruit. (Atkinson.)—This is the 
wild form known as Lactuca scariola from which the garden varieties 
are believed to be derived. When growing in open land the leaves com- 
monly arrange themselves in two vertical rows with one edge directed 
upward and the tips pointing northward or southward. It is thus a 
“compass plant” similar to that of our western prairies described by 
Longfellow in Evangeline, Part Second, Section IV. The parachute-like 
fruits are carried far by the wind, and are finally anchored by means of 
the spines near the base of the stalk. 
