COMPOSITAE 



COMPOSITE FAMILY 



HORSEWEED. BUTTERWEED 



Erigeron canadensis L. 



• There is no doubt about this plant being a weed. It is common 

 everywhere in fields and waste places throughout North America 

 except in the extreme north, and is widely distributed also in the 

 Old world, in the West Indies and in 

 South America. 



The Horseweed is annual and us- 

 ually somewhat bristly and hairy. It 

 grows 3-10 feet high and the larger 

 plants are much branched. The basal 

 and lower stem leaves are petioled and 

 cut lobed but the rest are mostly 

 linear and entire. 



The small heads are usually very 

 numerous from June to killing frost. 

 The bracts of the bell-shaped involucre 

 are narrow and smooth, the outer 

 shorter. The rays are white and num- 

 erous but very short and inconspicuous. 

 The disk flowers are yellowish. The 

 akenes are somewhat flattened and the 

 pappus is composed of numerous white 

 bristles. 



The White Top or Sweet Scabious, 

 Erigeron annuus (L.) Pers., is another 

 annual species common especially in old 

 meadows and orchards. The stem is 

 branched, covered with spreading hairs 

 and usually 1-4 feet high. The leaves are 

 coarsely and sharply toothed. The lowest 

 are ovate and taper into a short petiole, 

 or are lanceolate and sessile. There are 

 40-70 white or purple-tinged ray flowers which are about twice the 

 length of the involucre. In this species the involucre is double, the 

 inner part composed of slender bristles and the outer of scales. Rather 

 numerous heads, somewhat more than one-half inch broad, are pro- 

 duced from May to late autumn. 



You bold thing ! thrusting 'uoath the vorj* nose 

 Of her fastidious majesty, the rose, 

 Even in the best ordained garden bed. 

 Unauthorized, j-our smiling little head ! 



To A Weed — Gkrtrude IIali, 



355 



