HERBAGE-VEGETABLES 



73 



Fig. 76. — Lettuce. Plant in flower and fruit. (Atkinson.) — This is the 

 wild form known as Lactuca scariola from which the garden varieties 

 are believed to be derived. When growing in open land the leaves com- 

 monly arrange themselves in two vertical rows with one edge directed 

 upward and the tips ijointing northward or southward. It is thus a 

 "compass plant" similar to that of our western prairies described by 

 Longfellow in Evangeline, Part Second, Section IV. The parachute-like 

 fruits are carried far by the wind, and are finally anchored by means of 

 the spines near the base of the stalk. 



