.160 



TITK IXDfANA WfcKT) ROOK. 



Fig. 118. Pistillate flower on left; central 

 one on right. (After Bricton and Brown.) 



Common in dry soil on the slopes of open woodland pastures 

 and old fields. July-Sept. A homely but very fragrant lierb oc- 

 cupying waste places yet not aggressive enough to do much harm. 

 Remedies : frequent mowing or pulling before the heads mature. 



As one travels along the country roads or wanders through 

 the woodlands from mid-July to October he inhales many an odor 



but none more pleasing than that which 

 comes from this Composite. There is 

 nothing like it in the rambler's cate- 

 gory of smells. Once known it is never 

 forgotten, and each season it is greeted 

 with ever growing delight. If there is 

 any other odor which it recalls it is that 

 of the earth, earthy on the first days 

 of the great awakening. Then the 

 moistened leaves and mold give up 

 from many a woodland surface the 

 quintessence of herbs and grass and 

 flowers long since dead and forgotten. 

 But the odor of the everlasting is that 

 of a living thing which one can gather and put into his pocket 

 where for months it will exhale its fragrance. Where the plant is 

 plentiful the odor penetrates the air for rods around and is often 

 borne to the traveler by whom it is welcomed though its source be 

 to him unknown. What combination of chemical atoms, what per- 

 fect union of C. and H. and 0. and other elements, must there be 

 for its production? What a hidden secret must this herb possess 

 that it is enabled to produce and exhale such a unique, pleasing 

 and life-inspiring fragrance ! 

 125. BIDEXS COXNATA Muhl. Swamp Beggar-ticks. (A. N. 1.) 



Steins erect, purple, glabrous, usually much branched, 1-5 feet high; 

 leaves thin, opposite, stalked, lanceolate or oblong, sharply and coarsely 

 toothed, pointed, 2-5 inches long, the lower often 3-lobed. Heads num- 

 erous, erect, stalked, about 1 inch broad ; involucre bell-shaped, its bracts 

 in 2 rows, the outer ones the larger; receptacle flat, chaffy; rays none or 

 1-5 and inconspicuous; disk-flowers orange. Acheues wedge-shaped, flat, 

 often keeled, edges bristly-hairy, top with 2-4 stiff downwardly barbed 

 pappus-awns. (Fig. 1, ?>.) 



Very common in swamps, borders of marshes and low wet bot- 

 tom lands. July-Get. This is one of 8 or 10 species of trouble- 

 some weeds occurring in the State and known as bur-marigolds, 

 beggar-ticks, tick-seed sunflowers, pitch-forks, devil's bootjacks, etc. 

 Some of them have prominent yellow rays and will be treated on 



