45 



BEGGAR-TICKS; STICK- 

 TIGHT. 



One does not have to be a botanist 

 or even a lover of flowers to know 

 Beggar-ticks. Anyone who tramps 

 woods and fields in fall is apt to at 

 any moment find his clothes bristling 

 with the little blacky two-hooked 

 seeds. They are well named "Stick- 

 tight" for it is absolutely impossible 

 to brush them off ; they must be pick- 

 ed from the clothing one by one. 

 They give anyone a very practical 

 demonstration of the. methods that 

 some plants use to distribute their 

 seeds in new localities., although the 

 chances are that the victim as he 

 plucks and casts them away does not realize that he is do- 

 ing just what the plant had planned for him to do, found 

 new colonies. 



Beggar-ticks is shown by the picture on the left hand. It 

 is a very branching or bushy species, attaining height of 

 two to eight feet. The prominently veined and toothed 

 leaves are quite handsome but the flowers, seated in a little 

 terminal rosette of leaves are small and inconspicuous^ just 

 a few very short," tiny rays surrounding the small clusters 

 of brownish florets which later will be the "ticks." 



BUR-MARIGOLD or BROOK SUNFLOWER belongs 

 to the same genus and has the same disagreeable habit of 

 attaching its seeds to clothing or fur of animals. The flower 

 heads, however, are quite handsome as they measure nearly 

 two inches across and are composed of eight or ten broad 

 yellow rays about the brownish-yellow center. Bur-Mari- 

 gold is shown at the right in the illustration on this page. 



COMMON WHITE DAISIES, although naturalized 

 from Europe, are one of our commonest field flowers. They 

 need no description for who does not remember having his 

 fortune told by plucking one by one the white rays that sur- 

 round the golden center. Equally abundant is TANSY with 

 its aromatic, finely divided leaves and rayless yellow flower 

 heads. 



