1 9 o FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. 



of Great Britain as far North as Scotland, and it is found in Northum- 

 berland growing at altitudes of 1000 ft., and in Ireland and the Channel 

 Islands. 



Groundsel is so familiar a plant and so cosmopolitan that one ^an 

 hardly describe its habitat in brief, for it is found in a great variety of 

 stations. It is essentially, however, a plant of cultivated ground, 

 coming up in cornfields, turnip fields, in the farmyard, stackyard 



garden, and on every de- 

 scription of waste ground, 

 being one of those domi- 

 nant species that ousts all 

 else in its neighbourhood. 

 The plant is erect in 

 habit. It may be downy 

 or hairless, and is an 

 extremely polymorphic 



species, numerous forms 

 having- been described by 

 Professor A. H. Trow. 

 The plant is succulent, 

 with numerous fibrous root- 

 lets. The stem is branched 

 from the base, and gland- 

 less, like the rest of the 

 plant. The leaves are 

 deeply divided nearly to 

 the base, half-clasping, the 

 lobes distant, oblong, blunt, 

 variable, with acute, irregu- 

 lar, coarse, unequal teeth, 

 like the rachis and auricles. The lower leaves are stalked. 



The flowerheads are few, small, drooping, hairless in a clustered 

 raceme, oblong, cylindrical, and after flowering conical. The florets 

 are all disk florets and yellow. The outer phyllaries are very short, 

 and closely pressed, with black points, dark, egg-shaped to awl-like, 

 many. There are usually no ligules. The fruit is ribbed, silky. 



Groundsel is about a foot in height. It is to be found in flower 

 all the year round. Propagation is effected by fruit, the plant being 

 an annual and herbaceous. In the Alps it is perennial. 



The capitulum is made up of 60-80 florets. They are all usually 

 tubular, bisexual. The tube is 3^ to 4 mm. long, the throat i to rj 



GROUNDSEL (Senecio vulgaris, L.) 



