COMMON THISTLE 



All the Thistles are armed cap-a-pie and one wonders 

 what enemy is so dreaded that such preparations must 

 be made against him. The central stem, the leaves, 

 the very involucres 

 of the flower-heads 

 bristle at every 

 point. The leaves, 

 woolly beneath, 

 rough above, spiny 

 on the edges, are 

 cleft and cut and 

 ruffled, simply, it 

 seems, to make room 

 for more spines, more 

 bristles, and more 

 prickles. It is evi- 

 dent that the enemy 

 against whom the 

 treasure-house is 

 guarded is an enemy 

 that has legs but no 

 wings, an enemy 

 that will eat the nec- 

 tar, but cannot dis- 

 tribute the pollen. 

 The chief of these is the ant, the omnipresent ant, 

 and bristles are great discouragers of ant industry. 



The beautiful flower-heads are a lovely rose-purple, 

 the florets protected by a prickly involucre and 

 a spiny peduncle. They are borne at the summit of 

 the stem and from the axils of the upper leaves. High- 

 est heads open first, the outer florets mature first. 

 Each ray-floret parts into five fringe-like lobes at the 

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Roadside Thistle. Cdrduus lanceoUtus 



