COMPOSITE 



COMPOSITE COMPOSITE FAMILY 



Cirsium spinosissimum, (Walt.) Scop. 



Yellow, sometimes with Yellow Thistle. 



purple markings 



June-August 



Cirsium: for derivation see arvense. 

 Spinosissimum: from Latin, meaning most thorny. 



THE PREFERRED HABITAT: dry, sandy soil of the Commons. 



THE PLANT: erect, two feet tall or taller, branched; stem 

 leafy, somewhat woolly when young, but becoming 

 smoother. 



THE LEAVES: numerous; green on both sides; lanceolate or 

 oblong; acute at the apex; sessile and clasping at the base; 

 deeply cut or lobed, the parts generously armed with 

 prickles. 



THE FLOWER HEADS: two to four inches broad; bracts of 

 the involucre narrowly lanceolate, roughish. 



THE FRUIT: achenes. 



Indubitably a thistle, and a very spiny one! 



COMPOSITE COMPOSITE FAMILY 



Cichorium Intybus, L. 



"Chicory blue" Chicory, 



Succory, 



July-October Blue-sailors, 



Coffee Weed, 

 Bachelor's-buttons. 



Cichorium: altered from the Arabian name of the plant. 



A similar name is used in nearly all the languages of 



civilization. 



Intybus: a classical Latin name for the species. 

 418 



