COMPOSITE FAMILY 



nectar. In color it varies from the thistle-purple to 

 pale lilac and sometimes nearly white; in summer 

 it seems to live and have its being to the music of the 

 bumblebees' buzz. The plant is biennial, and its au- 

 tumn rosette of leaves large and spreading. 



COMMON THISTLE. ROADSIDE THISTLE. 

 BULL THISTLE 



Cdrduus lanceoldtus. Circium lanceoldtum 



Biennial. Naturalized from Europe. This is the 

 Thistle that wanders along every roadside of the coun- 

 try from Newfoundland to Georgia and west to Minnesota 

 and Nebraska. July-November. 



Root. — Single deep tap-root. 



Stems. — Three to five feet high, several arising from a 

 rosette of long, prickly, spiny leaves, erect, branching, 

 strong, woody, closely hugged by prickly leaf stems. 



Leaves. — Alternate, long, lance-shaped, deeply cleft, 

 sharp-pointed, covered with spines and prickles, rough, 

 bristly, woolly beneath when young. Stem leaves decur- 

 rent on the stem. First-year leaves form a rosette upon 

 the ground. 



Flower-head. — Discoid-composite, that is, all florets 

 tubular; an inch and a half to two inches across, thistle- 

 purple, mostly solitary at the ends of stems and branches. 

 Involucre of lanceolate bracts, all tipped with needle-like 

 prickles. Pappus white, long, plumy. Akenes light- 

 colored, oblong, slightly curved and flattened. Fragrant. 



Pollinated by bees and butterflies. Nectar-bearing. 

 Stamens mature before the stigma. 



The Roadside Thistle escorts our steps from the 

 Atlantic coast to the Mississippi River, a plant of 

 beauty and of dignity, but of no economic value. 

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