WEEDS OF ROADSIDES AND WASTE PLACES 



BURDOCK 



tection from the attack of herbivorous animals. Many 

 thousand seeds are commonly produced by a single plant, 

 and each of these seeds is furnished with a fine pappus, 

 so that it may be carried long distances by the wind. 



This is a difficult weed to keep in check. It occupies 

 roadsides and waste grounds very quickly, and its seeds 

 are blown from such situations to cultivated fields. The 

 growing of hoed crops and repeated mow- 

 ing of patches where the plant is es- 

 tablished — thus preventing seeding — 

 are the most advisable measures of pro- 

 tection. 



Among the composite plants whose 

 seeds are carried by animals, the Bur- 

 dock is perhaps the most generally 

 known. Its coarse leaves and spiny seed 

 heads are to be found in many neglected 

 corners. It is a biennial, making a vig- 

 orous growth of leaves near the ground 

 during the first season, and storing in 

 the root a large amount of nourishment for the rapid de- 

 velopment of the great flower stalk the second season. 

 The tiny florets are crowded together in composite heads, 

 having a pinkish color, and surrounded by a mass of bracts 

 with recurved spiny tips. As the seeds ripen, these spiny 

 burs become brown and easily break away to be carried by 

 any animals that may come in contact with them, scattering 

 the seed as they journey. The plants vary greatly in height 

 according to the richness of the soil in which they grow. 

 They are easily pulled up when quite small, but the second 

 season they must be repeatedly cut off below the soil sur- 

 face to prevent their blossoming, or else killed by pouring 

 kerosene or some other suitable liquid upon the crown. 



