202 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. 



sable and picturesque accompaniment of tlie "old 

 farmhouse '' which is the theme of his picture. 



The Canada thistle [Cnicus arvensis) is another 

 dweller in the highway and the pasture which came 

 to us from Europe. Gray calls it " a vile pest in 

 fields and meadows." The flower heads are not 

 more than an inch long and very numerous ; the 

 tips are lilac-magenta. 



The common thistle (Cnicus lanceolatus), with 

 the large and handsome flower, is also naturalized 

 from Europe. The base of the deeply cut leaf runs 

 down the stem in prickly wings ; the flowers are also 

 lilac -mageuta. Our tallest thistle (C altissimus) is 

 common in copses and on the borders of the road 

 and field from Massachusetts to Minnesota and 

 Southward. Its jstem, from three to ten feet high, 

 is leafy cpiite to the flower head, which is purple or 

 rarely white, and from one and a half to two inches 

 long. The leaves are very woolly beneath, wavy, 

 and the topmost ones are not very deeply cut. This 

 species is indigenous. On sandy roads near the 

 coast, fi'om Massachusetts to ^^irginia, is a yellow 

 thistle [C. horridulus), with a stout stem one to three 

 feet high, partly clasping, smooth, green, yellow- 

 prickled leaves and flower heads, about two inches 

 long and an inch and a half broad, yellow, or rare- 

 ly purple-topped, and surrounded at the base by a 



