38 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



we go northward. Though its brilliant blossoms, and the 

 profusion in which they are found where the circumstances 

 are favourable, render the fleabane an attractive plant to 

 those who have no particular interest in the land it 

 enlivens by its golden rays, the farmer finds it no pleasing 

 spectacle when it overruns large tracts of land, as it takes 

 the place of what would be more profitable, gives the land 

 a barren and uncultivated appearance, and rather convicts 

 him of having been negligent in his drainage arrange- 

 ments. Horses and cattle dislike it. 



The root of the fleabane possesses in the eyes of the 

 agriculturist two great drawbacks it is perennial, and it 

 creeps. Not only can it scarcely be dislodged from its first 

 spot, but it declines to merely stay there, sending its 

 creeping underground stems all around, and seizing on a 

 larger area. From these creeping roots, stems at intervals 

 arise, and attain to a height of from one to two feet. The 

 stems branch a good deal, are round in section, tough 

 and firm, solid, and, like the leaves, are more or less 

 covered with a woolly substance. This latter varies a good 

 deal in degree in different plants, some scarcely showing it, 

 while others look quite hoary, and in many cases the stem 

 is more clothed with it than the foliage. The leaves, as 

 may be very clearly seen in our illustration, are placed 

 alternately on the stems, and set rather closely together. 

 They spread vigorously and boldly out, but clasp the stems 

 almost round at their bases by their rounded lobes or 

 auricles. The leaves themselves are of the form called by 

 botanists oblong. Though the geometrician might object 

 to the term, it is one well understood. The outline of the 

 leaf is slightly notched, and the whole leaf is wavy, as may 

 be clearly noticed in the three lower examples in our figure. 



