224 



FIELD AND WOODLAND PLANTS 



and the pappus consists of brown, feathery hahs, all of the same 

 length. The flowers appear during August and September. 



The Meadow Thistle {Carduus pratensis) is abundant in some 

 of the southern counties of Britain and Ireland, but is rarely seen 

 in the north. Nearly all the leaves of this plant are radical, and 

 these are long, narrow, and covered with cottony hau-s. The 



few leaves of 

 the stem are 

 narrow, with 

 short teeth that 

 are only slightly 

 prickly. The 

 stem itself 

 g r o w s fro m 

 twelve to eigh- 

 teen inches high, 

 and is usually 

 u n branched, 

 with a single 

 head of flowers ; 

 sometimes, how- 

 ever, it has one 

 or two branches, 

 each terminat- 

 ing in a tlower- 

 head. The 

 involucre is 

 globular in 

 form, covered 

 w i t h cottony 

 hairs, and com- 

 posed of closely-placed bracts. The flo\\ers arc purple. The plant 

 grows chiefly in moist pastures, and flowers from June to August. 



The Black Knapweed or Hardliead {Centaiirea nigra) is a verj^ 

 common flower of meadows and pastures, flowering from June to 

 September. Its stem is erect, tough, branched, from a few inches 

 to three feet in height. The leaves are long and narrow ; the upper 

 ones entire or nearly so, and clasping the stem ; and the lower 

 coarsely toothed or divided into lobes. The flower-head has 

 somewhat the a])pearance of a ])Ui|)le thistle, but the involucre 

 is not pricklj\ The latter consists of an almost globular mass of 



THE AUTUIINAL IlA\\"KBIT. 



