COMPOSITE. (composite FAMILY.) 295 



1. E. hieracif61ia, Kaf. (Fire weed.) Often hairy; stem grooved 



(1 -6° liigli) ; leaves laiieeolate or oblong, acute, cut-toothed, sessile, the upper 

 auricled at base. — Moist woods ; coniniou, especially northward, and in recent 

 clearings that have been burned over ; whence the popular name. July - Sept. 



78. ARCTIUM, L. Bckdock. 



Heads nianv-flowered ; flowers all tubular, perfect and similar. Involucre 

 globular; the iniliricatcd scales coriaceous and appressed at base, attenuate to 

 long stiff ])oints with hooked tips. Receptacle bristly. Achenes oblong, flat- 

 tened, wrinkled transversely ; pappus short, of numerous rough bristles, sepa- 

 rate and deciduous. — Coarse biennial weeds, with large unarmed and petioled 

 leaves, and small solitary or clustered heads; flowers jmrple, rarely white. 

 (Name probably from &pKTos, a bear, from the rough involucre.) 



A. L.4i'PA, L. Stout, 1-3° high; leaves roundish or ovate and mostly 

 cordate, or lanceolate with cuneate base, smooth above, somewhat floccose- 

 tonientose beneath, mostly sinuate-denticulate. (Lap]ia officinalis, .1//.) — 

 The several i-eputed species of the genus are scarcely distinguishable even as 

 varieties. Var. .-^lixis, lias rather small ovoid subraceuKJse heads (about 8" 

 broad), on short peduncles, glabrous or somewhat cottony, the inner scales 

 somewhat purplish-tipped, e([ualling the flowers; leaves occa.sionally cut- 

 toothed. By road.<iides ; very common. — Var. m.\,ii s, witli broader (1 ') green 

 and glabrous sul)Corymliose rather long-pedunculate heads. Less frecjuent. — 

 ^'ar. TOMENTdsi-.-M, a form of the last with more spherical webbed heads, with 

 purplish scales shorter than the flowers. Rare. — July - Oct. (Nat. from Eu.) 



79. C NIC US, Tourn. Common or Plumed Thistle. 

 Heads many-flowered ; flowers all tubular, perfect and similar, rarely imper- 

 fectly dioecious. Scales of the ovoid or spherical involucre imbricated in many 

 rows, tipped with a point or prickle. Keceptacle thickly clothed with soft 

 bristles or hairs. Achenes oblong, flattish, not ribbed ; pappus of numerous 

 bristles united into a ring at the base, plumo.se to the middle, deciduous. — 

 Herbs, mostly biennial, with ses.sile alternate leaves, often pinnatifid, prickly. 

 Heads usually large, terminal. Flowers reddish-purple, rarely white or yel- 

 lowish ; in summer. (Latin name of the Safflower, from the Greek kvtikos.) 

 * Scales of the involucre all tipped tvith spreading pr icicles. 



C. laxceolXti's, Hoffm. (Common Thistle.) Leaves decurrent on the 

 stem, forming prickly lobed wings, pinnatifid, rough and bristly above, woolly 

 with deciduous webby hairs beneath, prickly ; flowers purple. (Cirsium, Scop.) 

 — Pastures and roadsides, everywhere, at the North. (Nat. from Eu.) 



* * Heads lea/f/-bracteate at base (see also n. 8) ; proper scales not prickli/. 



1. C. horridulus, Pursh. (Yellow Thistle.) Stem stout (1 -3° high), 

 webby-haired when young ; leaves partly clasjiing, green, soon smooth, lanceo- 

 late, pinnatifid, the short toothed and cut lobes very spiny with yellowish 

 prickles; heads (I - H' broad) surrounded by leaf-like and very prickly bracts, 

 which usually equal the narrow scales ; flowers pale yellow or purple. (Cirsium. 

 Michx.) — Sandy fields, Mass. to Va., and southward, near the coast. 



» * » Scales oppressed, the inner not at all prickly. 

 *- Leaves white-woolly beneath, and sometimes also aliore ; outer scales succes- 

 sively shorter, and ti]>ped with short pi'ickles. 



2. C. Pitcheri, Torr. White-woolly throughout , low ; stem very leafy ; 

 leaves all pinnatcl ;i parted into rigid narrowly linear and elongated, sometimes 



