HARPER'S GUIDE TO WILD FLOWERS 



taken mostly from the disk, for the rays are seldom found. The 

 involucre is roundish, and the outer bracts become long, much 

 longer than the disk, leaf-like, rough-margined. Leaves, petioled, 

 pinnately 3 to 5-divided, with segments thin, stalked, sharply 

 toothed, acute at apex, roughish. 2 to 8 feet high. July to 

 October. 



One may make the acquaintance of this plant by its fruit, 

 after a walk in the woods in fall. The seeds are achenes, 

 with barbed awns which point down, catching in the cloth- 

 ing. There is no beauty in the plant, and it is often quite 

 too common, becoming a weed more and more widely dis- 

 seminated. Some of its common names show the low es- 

 timation in which it is held — beggar - lice, pitchforks (a 

 really suitable name), stickseed, or sticktight. 



Spanish Needles 



B. btpinnkta Flowers, with 3 or 4 or sometimes no yellow 



rays. Of the involucre, the outer row of scales equals the rays 

 in length. Achenes, nearly smooth themselves, are tipped with 

 3 or 4 awns with hooks bent downward, by means of which they 

 catch into everything which touches them. Leaves, 1 to 3 -pin- 

 nately cut, the divisions cut or lobed, toothed. 



Sometimes a weed, in damp soil, Rhode Island westward 

 and southward. 



Swamp Beggar-ticks 



B. connkta. — Color of disk, orange yellow. No rays or but few, 

 small. Leaves, with margined petioles, lance-shaped, sharply, 

 coarsely, and distantly serrate. Involucre, the outer bracts nar- 

 row, long, hairy; the inner, oblong or ovate, short. Stem, 8 feet 

 high or less, purple in color. Achenes, barbed like those of the 

 preceding species. 



A coarse plant, absolutely without beauty. In swamps 

 from Nova Scotia south to Georgia, west to Kentucky and 

 Missouri. 



Larger Bur Marigold. Brook Sunflower 



B. lahois Color, bright yellow. Leaves, undivided, without 



petioles, lance-shaped, toothed, opposite. August to October. 



This is the finest of the bur marigolds, being really a hand- 

 some thing. The ray flowers are present, large, 2 inches or 

 more broad. It is especially striking in the later days of 

 September and to the middle of October, outlasting many 

 of the golden-rods. It grows in rich bloom around pools 



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