526 COMPOSITAE (COMPOSITE FAMILY) 



pot herb and as salad ; several thousand tons of its thick, fleshy 

 roots are dried and annually exported to the United States for use 

 as a substitute for coffee or as an adulterant, many persons liking 

 the flavor and considering the admixture to be not only more 

 economical than pure coffee but also a more wholesome beverage. 

 Stems two to four feet tall, round, hollow, sparsely hairy, much 

 branched, changing with age from 

 green to purplish red and becoming 

 very hard and woody. Like the 

 two preceding and all the following 

 related species, its juices are milky 

 and somewhat bitter. Root-leaves 

 tufted, spreading on the ground, four 

 to eight inches long, spatulate in 

 outline but pinnatifid, narrowing into 

 margined petioles, the surface rough, 

 the midrib set with stiff hairs on the 

 under side ; stem-leaves small, usually 

 entire, clasping and auricled at base. 

 Heads one to four together in sessile 

 clusters on the nearly naked branches ; 

 but one in each cluster is open at one 

 time, only in bright sunshine and is 

 usually closed again by noon ; heads 

 an inch or more broad, deep sky- 

 blue, the rays five-toothed at the 



FIG. 362. -Chicory (Cichorium ***'. bracts of the involucre green, 

 Intybus). x i the inner row erect, the outer one 



short and spreading. Achenes brown, 



five-ribbed, crowned with a row of pointed scales ; they are a 

 frequent impurity of grass and clover seed. (Fig. 362.) 



Means of control 



Deep cutting, below the crown, with spud or hoe will usually 

 kill Chicory. Or it may be grubbed out, or hand-pulled when 

 the ground is sufficiently soft to yield its hold on the long, fleshy 

 taproot. 



