168 WEEDS AND USEFUL PLANTS. 



FULLERS' DIPSACUS. Fullers' Teasel. 



Fr. Chardon a Foulon. Germ. Aechte Kartendistel. Span. Car- 

 dencha. 



Root biennial. Stem 4- 5 feet high, branched. Radical leaves obovate, narrowed to a 

 petiole at base ; stem leaves connate-perfoliate. Leaflets of the involucre lanceolate, mucro- 

 nate, rigid. Heads of flowers cylindric or elliptical ; corolla pale purple. Bracts or chaff 

 of the receptacle cuneate-oblong, keeled, bristly-ciliate on the margin, terminating in a 

 rigid subulate recurved acumination. 



Lots : cultivated. Native of Europe. Fl. July. Fr. September. 



Obs. This species is cultivated by some cloth manufacturers, for the 

 sake of the heads, the rigid recurved points of the chaffy bracts, on 

 the mature heads, serving as a kind of card, to raise the nap on woollen 

 cloth. 



ORDER XL. COMI OS'IT^E. (COMPOSITE FAMILY.) 



Mostly herbs, with alternate or opposite, often lobed or dissected (never truly compound) 

 leaves without stipules, and flowers in close heads upon a common receptacle, and embraced 

 by leaflets or scales, which form a general involucre. Calyx-tube closely adherent to the 

 ovary ; its limb or border (called pappus) consisting of hairs, bristles, or scales ; some- 

 times wanting. Corolla, either tubular and 5- (rarely 3-4-) lobed, or strap-shaped (Ugu- 

 late) and mostly 5-toothed. Stamens 5 (rarely 4), inserted on the corolla ; antiiers united 

 forming a tube which surrounds the'2-cleft style. Fruit an akene containing a single erect 

 seed, which is destitute of albumen. 



This immense Order contains about one-tenth of the known species of flowering plants. 

 The flowers are either polygamous, monoacious or dioecious. Aside from the terms noticed 

 above, used in describing plants of this family, it may be well to mention that the strap- 

 shaped corollas are termed rays, and those heads possessing them are termed radiate. 

 The tubular flowers compose the disk ; a head composed entirely of these is said to be 

 discoid. The flowers of either kind are termed florets. The leaves or bracts forming to- 

 gether the involucre are termed scales, whatever their texture. The scales which often 

 grow upon the receptacle, among the flowers, are called chaff (palece), if the receptacle is 

 without these it is naked. 



In systematic works, the distinctions into tribes are made upon minute characters of the 

 style, too difficult for those who have not had some experience in examining minute 

 objects ; in order to facilitate the determination of the genera, an artificial key, modified 

 from that in Gray's Manual, is appended. In this the systematic arrangement is broken 

 up, but the genera as described are placed in their proper order. The * and ** prefixed 

 to Erigeron and Senecio refer to sections of those genera. 



SUB-ORDER 1. TUBULIFLOR^E. 



Corolla of the perfect flowers tubular, regularly 5- (rarely 3-4-) lobed; strap-shaped 

 (ligulate) only in the marginal or ray-flowers, which when present are either pistillate 

 only or neutral (with neither stamens nor pistil). 



1. Heads without ray-flowers ; corollas all tubular. 

 * Flowers of the head all alike and perfect. 



j- Pappus consisting of bristles. 



Pappus double, the outer very short, the inner of longer bristles. 1. VERXONIA. 



Pappus simple, the bristles all of the same sort. 

 Heads few or many -flowered. 



Receptacle (when the flowers are pulled off) bristly hairy 

 Akenes smooth. Pappus of plumose bristles. 



Leaves decurrent. Scales of involucre tipped with a spine. 25. QRSIUM. 

 Akenes smooth. Pappus plumose. Leaves not decurrent. 

 Scales of involucre, thick and fleshy with a lanceolate 

 appendage terminated by a spine. 24. CYNARA. 



Akenes wrinkled. Pappus of short and rough bristles. 27. LAITA. 

 Receptacle deeply honeycomb-like. 26. O.XOPORDON ' 



