COMPOSITE FAMILY 



TALL GLOBE THISTLE. ECHIKOPS 



Eckinops exaltatus. 



Echinops, Greek, like a hedgehog; alluding to the spiny, involucral 

 scales. 

 A tall biennial, of thistle-like aspect, six to seven feet high, well- 

 foliaged from base to summit and crowned by perfect spheres, two 

 inches in diameter, of disk-florets, steel-blue in color. Summer. Russia. 



Stem. — Erect, whitish, woolly, nearly simple, leafy, six to seven feet 

 high. 



Leaves. — Alternate, twice or thrice pinnatisect, the lobes and teeth 

 prickly. 



Flower-head. — Globular, covered with disk -florets, steel-blue. 



Flowers.— Tubviax, five-lobed, steel-blue when opening, fading with age- 



j^WM^A, 



The Tall Globe Thistle is a plant of 

 great dignity, resembling a gigantic gray 

 thistle, but when in bloom its tall stems 

 are surmoimted by balls, not thistle- 

 heads. So well foliaged are the stems 

 that a group of them might easily make 

 a leafy column to emphasize an entrance, 

 or stand as a sentinel. 



The flower-head in fuU bloom is a 

 sphere. Nature rarely achieves this 

 form in flowers; it is often suggested 

 but rarely attained; in this instance, 

 however, the unusual is accomplished. 

 The head in bud is spherical, the head 

 in full bloom is a sphere, it is only 

 during the period of partial bloom that 

 the exquisite symmetry is disturbed. The florets at the top 

 open first and the blooming impulse proceeds dovmward; that 

 is, from the centre outward, thus reversing the order of thistle 

 bloom, which is from the circumference inward. The bees 

 swarm about the open flowers in ecstasy; big bees and little 

 bees — all are there and all wild with delight. 



Stu 



Globe Thistle. Echinops exaltatus 



