COMPOSITE FAMILY. Composite 



very yellow-spiny ; the flower-heads set in the smaller 

 encircling upper leaflets, with very narrow, rough, spine- 

 less scales. 2-4 feet high. Common in wet or dry sandy 

 soil along the seacoast, from Me. to Tex. 

 T 11 Thistle ^ ra ^ er common species with magenta 



Cirsium altis- (rarely white) flowers about 1 J inches broad 

 simum and weak-bristled, rough-hairy, stemless 



Magenta leaves, deeply cut into linear lobes, white- 



July-October woolly beneath. The outer scales of the 

 flower-heads are slightly woolly and weak-bristled. Stem 

 downy, 3-6 feet high. Common on roadsides and in 

 fields ; south to Ga. 



A species with similar leaves and flow- 

 Thistle ers ' kut ^ ne blunt, prickleless scales of the 

 Cirsium heads glutinous, woolly, and close-press- 

 muticum ing. The flower with a naked stem, or 

 Magenta with a few tiny leaflets at its base. 3-8 

 feet high. Common in swamps and moist 

 low woodlands everywhere. 



The largest-flowered thistle of all, with 

 solitary heads 2-3 inches broad, the florets 

 Cirsium light magenta-lilac or nearly white ; they 



pumilum are exceedingly fragrant, rich in honey, 



Light magenta and are frequented by the bumblebee, who 

 g" 1 ^" imbibes to the point of abject intoxica- 



tion ! The slightly glutinous scales are 

 nearly smooth and tipped with slender prickles ; and at 

 the base are tiny leaflets. The light green leaves nar- 

 row and frequently cut into three-prickled lobes, the 

 prickles shorter than those of the common thistle and 

 very numerous. Stem only 12-30 inches high. In dry 

 pastures and fields, Me. to Del. and Pa., near the coast. 

 A pernicious weed, naturalized from 

 C^fm ThiStle Eur P e > with s m all lilac, pale magenta, or 

 arvense rarely white heads about inch broad. 



Lilac or pale The dull gray-green, whitish-ribbed leaves 

 magenta are deeply slashed into many very prickly, 



s" 1 1~ b ruifled lobes. Flowers staminate and pis- 



tillate; also fragrant. 1-3 feet high. 

 Common in pastures, fields, and on roadsides ; south 

 only to Va. 



522 



