COMPOSITAE (COMPOSITE FAMILY) 545 



filled with bitter, milky juice. Heads in open 

 racemes, lifted on rather long, scaly-bracted 

 peduncles ; they are about an inch broad, with 

 numerous light blue rays, toothed at the tips ; 

 bracts of the involucre imbricated in three or 

 four rows, the inner ones lance-shaped, the outer 

 ones shortening to pointed ovate. Achenes 

 flattened club-shaped, with ridged margins and 

 finely grooved sides, tapering to a short, stiff 

 beak tipped with a cup-like disk to which is at- 

 tached a copious, silky, white pappus which 

 enables the winds to sow the seed very widely. 

 (Fig. 378.) 



Means of control 



On the first appearance in any locality, it will 

 pay to hand-pull or dig out the plants before 

 seed production and before the rootstocks have 

 penetrated far into the soil. Established root- 

 stocks should be starved by persistent close 

 cutting of all leaf-growth throughout the growing 

 season. Where the land is badly infested, 

 short rotations of cultivated crops with very F _ 



thorough tillage are necessary if the weed is to Lettuce (Lactuca 

 be subdued. pulchella). x i 



HAIRY-VEINED BLUE LETTUCE 



Lactuca villdsa, Jaeq. 



Native. Biennial. Propagates by seeds. 



Time of bloom: July to September. 



Seed-time: August to October. 



Range : New York to Illinois and Nebraska, southward to Georgia, 



Florida, and Kentucky. 

 Habitat: Meadows, pastures, fence rows, and borders of woods. 



Stem two to six feet tall, round and smooth. Leaves oblong to 

 lance-shaped, long- pointed, light green, smooth and glossy above 

 but set with stiff bristly hairs on midrib and veins beneath, sharply 

 and often doubly toothed, the lower ones usually lobed at the base 



2N 



