294 PLANTS GROWING IN DRY SOIL. 
ing racemes of flowers. The leaves are lanceolate and very 
rough on the upper side. 
S. mlis, or velvety golden-rod, is distinguishable by the 
soft fleecy fuzz with which it is covered. It grows in dry 
plains from Minnesota southward and westward, 
S. juncea, Plate LXIX, 
BLAZING STAR. 
Lacitndria scardzosa. 
FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 
Composite. Rose purple. Scentless. Maine to Florida and Early autumn. 
; westward. 
Flower-heads : round ; growing in a long, wand-like raceme ; and composed 
of tubular flowers with long slender lobes. Scales of the involucre, long and 
bristly, purple tipped. Leaves: alternate; lanceolate; pointed. Stem: erect ; 
leafy ; rather downy. 
Why these beautiful flowers, which are clustered thickly or 
loosely together, as the case may be, were ever named blazing 
star it would trouble the wisest of us to explain. Their particu- 
lar charm lies in their warm rich colouring. 
L. squarrosa, or scaly blazing star, is a beautiful variety with 
larger, fewer flower-heads of rose purple. It blooms in the late 
summer and autumn and mostly southward and westward from 
Pennsylvania. Another name for it is rattlesnake-master ; the 
bites of which snakes it has been supposed to be efficacious in 
curing. 
BURR THISTLE. SPEAR THISTLE. 
Carduus lanceolatus. 
FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 
Compostte. Purplish crimson. Scentless. North and east. JSuly-November. 
Flower-heads: large; solitary; composed entirely of tubular flowers and sur- 
rounded by a prickly involucre. Zeaves : alternate; sessile, much cut and beset 
with red prickles. Stem: leafy ; rough. 
“ Nemo me impune lacessit.” 
Truly the farmer’s life is no merry jest ; for when he attempts 
to lean back in his easy chair, and flatter himself that he has 

