THE CORN SOW-THISTLE. 95 



plant, therefore, where it occurs at all, cannot well escape 

 being seen both on account of its fine size and of the large 

 and brilliant yellow flowers it bears. The leaves are large, 

 and, as will be seen in our illustration, are somewhat long 

 and narrow. The numerous lateral lobes stand boldly out 

 from the central line, and are either at about right angles 

 with it, or at other times point downwards towards the base 

 of the leaf, as we see the very similar segments of the dande- 

 lion leaf do. At other times the lobes are not so clearly de- 

 veloped; in this case the outline of the leaf is what is termed 

 botanically sinuate that is to say, irregularly waved. 

 Whatever the form of the leaf, its edges are thickly covered 

 with small but very sharply-pointed teeth. The upper 

 leaves of the plant are much smaller and much simpler in 

 form than the lower. All the leaves, whatever their 

 position on the stem, clasp it at their bases. The lower 

 leaves are stalked, the upper spring directly from the stem. 

 The flower-heads are very large and conspicuous, and the 

 form of what for convenience sake we may call the bud is 

 curiously square, a feature that is readily noticed again in 

 the common sow-thistle, a plant figured in another of our 

 illustrations. The so-called bud is really the involucre 

 or mass of bracts from which the composite flower-head 

 springs. After flowering the drum-like form is lost, the 

 form becoming conical : this may be well seen in the 

 illustration, just referred to, of the other species of sow- 

 thistle figured in our series. In the present plate, with 

 one exception, all the blossoms have yet to expand ; the 

 plant was sketched in an early stage of its flowering. 

 The inflorescence is by some authorities said to be panicu- 

 late, by others corymbose. The nature of a corymb will 

 be found defined in our remarks on the varrow, a 



