COMPOSITAE (COMPOSITE FAMILY) 



509 



The presence of one of these huge weeds in flower and fruit 

 should be considered a disgrace to the owner of the soil so occupied, 

 for it must have remained in undisturbed possession of the ground 

 for the necessary second year of growth before reproduction. 



The root is enormous ; often three inches thick, driving straight 

 downward for a foot or more and then branching in all directions, 

 taking strong hold on the soil and grossly robbing it. Stem four 

 to nine feet in height, stout, 

 ridged, rough-hairy, with spread- 

 ing branches. Leaves broadly 

 oval, the lower ones often more 

 than a foot in length and nearly 

 as wide, rather thin but strongly 

 ribbed and veined, with wavy or 

 slightly ruffled edges which save 

 them from being torn by the 

 wind, light green, woolly and 

 felt-like beneath but darker and 

 smooth above, with deeply fur- 

 rowed, solid petioles dilated at 

 base to clasp the stem. Heads in 

 crowded axillary clusters, each 

 sometimes more than an inch 

 broad, often on rather long pe- 

 duncles ; florets all tubular and 

 perfect; corollas pink, five-lobed, 

 the ring of anthers purple, stig- 

 mas and pollen white ; bracts of 

 the involucre in many series, rigid, hooked inwardly at the tip, 

 spreading at differing angles, making the heads nearly globular. 

 Achenes oblong, three-angled, mottled gray and brown, crowned 

 with a short, bristly pappus. Widely distributed in the burs by 

 animals, and on garments of passers-by. (Fig. 353.) 



Burdock roots and seeds are used in medicine and the destruc- 

 tion of the weeds may sometimes be made profitable ; roots should 

 be collected in autumn of the first year of growth, cleaned, sliced 

 lengthwise, and carefully dried ; the price is three to eight cents a 

 pound ; ripe seeds bring five to ten cents a pound. 



FIG. 353. Great Burdock (Arc- 

 tium Lappa). X i. 



