42 FAMILIAR WILD FLO WEES. 



like the trouble that groundsel and many other garden- 

 loving interlopers do, and the toil of a little preliminary 

 hoeing is soon forgotten when the plants destined to be 

 preserved are revealing themselves in all their beauty. The 

 plant is a biennial, and should be looked for in hedges, 

 banks, and on rubbish-heaps. It flowers during June and 

 July ; but the flowers, effective as they are, are not the 

 crowning glory of the plant. The stalks of the milk- 

 thistle are ordinarily from four to five feet high, though 

 we have sometimes seen them over six feet in height. The 

 lower part is often downy and groovy, the upper part 

 smooth and finely channelled. The leaves near the root are 

 boldly spread out into a great rosette, each leaf being a couple 

 of feet or so in length, and deeply cut into broad and very 

 prickly -margined lobes. The upper surface is very smooth 

 and glossy, and marked all over with a broad network of 

 white veins. It is impossible to even suggest the beauty 

 of the appearance in the very limited space our plate 

 affords ; for we can but give an inch or two of the tip of 

 one of these grand leaves as hopeless a proceeding almost 

 as that of the man in classic story who carried about a 

 brick to give people an idea of his house. Occasionally 

 the leaves are wholly green, and it then becomes necessary 

 to avail ourselves of some other means of identification, 

 none being more efficacious than the strong spiny head 

 from which the blossoms emerge. The upper leaves are 

 very much smaller, and clasp the stem tightly by the broad 

 lobes at their bases ; they are generally boldly bent back 

 from the stems. The flower-heads are large, and of a rich 

 crimsonish purple, while the florets are of the usual 

 character we find in the thistle family. The scales of the 

 involucre are foliaceous in character, and are armed with 



