COMPOSITAE (COMPOSITE FAMILY) 509 
The presence of one of these huge weeds in flower and fruit 
should be considered a disgrace to the owner of the'soil so occupied, 
for it must have remained in undisturbed possession of the ground 
for the necessary second year of growth before reproduction. 
The root is enormous; often three inches thick, driving straight 
downward for a foot or more and then branching in all directions, 
taking strong hold on the soil and grossly robbing it. Stem four 
to nine feet in height, stout, 
ridged, rough-hairy, with spread- 
ing branches. “ Leaves broadly 
oval, the lower ones often more 
than a foot in length and nearly 
as wide, rather, thin but strongly 
ribbed and veined, with wavy or 
slightly ruffled edges which save 
them from being torn by the 
wind, light green, woolly and 
felt-like beneath but darker and 
smooth above, with deeply fur- 
rowed, solid petioles dilated at 
base to clasp the stem. Heads in 
crowded axillary clusters, each 
sometimes more than an inch 
broad, often on rather long pe- 
duncles; florets all tubular and 
perfect; corollas pink, five-lobed, 
the ring of anthers purple, stig- F#- a nea Junio sane 
is hum Lappa). X }. 
mas and pollen white; bracts of : 
the involucre in many series, rigid, hooked inwardly at the tip, 
spreading at differing angles, making the heads nearly globular. 
Achenes oblong, three-angled, mottled gray and brown, crowned 
with a short, bristly pappus. Widely distributed in the burs by 
animals, and on garments of passers-by. (Fig. 353.) 
Burdock roots and seeds are used in medicine and the destruc- 
tion of the weeds may sometimes be made profitable; roots should 
be collected in autumn of the first year of growth, cleaned, sliced 
lengthwise, and carefully dried; the price is three to eight cents a 
pound; ripe seeds bring five to ten cents a pound. 
