COMPOSITAE (COMPOSITE FAMILY) 545 
filled with bitter, milky juice. Heads in open 
racemes, lifted on rather long, scaly-bracted 
peduncles; they are about an inch broad, with 
numerous light blue rays, toothed at the tips; 
bracts of the involucre imbricated in three or 
four rows, the inner ones lance-shaped, the outer 
ones shortening to pointed ovate. Achenes 
flattened club-shaped, with ridged margins and 
finely grooved sides, tapering to a short, stiff 
beak tipped with a cup-like disk to which is at- 
tached a copious, silky, white pappus which 
enables the winds to sow the seed very widely. 
(Fig. 378.) 
Means of control 
On the first appearance in any locality, it will 
pay to hand-pull or dig out the plants before 
seed production and before the rootstocks have 
penetrated far into the soil. Established root- 
stocks ‘should be starved by persistent close 
cutting of all leaf-growth throughout the growing 
season. Where the land is badly infested, 
short rotations of cultivated crops — with very a Seine 
thorough tillage — are necessary if the weed is to Lettuce (Lactuca 
be subdued. pulchella). X }. 
HAIRY-VEINED BLUE LETTUCE 
Lactica villosa, Jacq. 
Native. Biennial. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: July to September. 
Seed-time: August to October. ; 
Range: New York to Illinois and Nebraska, southward to Georgia, 
Florida, and Kentucky. 
Habitat: Meadows, pastures, fence rows, and borders of woods. 
Stem two to six feet tall, round and smooth. Leaves oblong to 
lance-shaped, long-pointed, light green, smooth and glossy above 
but set with stiff bristly hairs on midrib and veins beneath, sharply 
and often doubly toothed, the lower ones usually lobed at the base 
2N 
