154 FAMILIAR WILD FLO WEES. 



horses or cattle, either when growing-, or when dried in the 

 hay. It is, moreover, a difficult plant to extirpate, and its 

 tough stems blunt the mower's scythe as well as give him 

 extra trouble in mowing, by the resistance they offer to 

 the onward swing before which the grass falls resistless. 

 Martyn, in his " Flora rustica/' speaks of it emphatically, 

 we see, as " a bad weed among grass/' It increases very 

 freely by means of its roots. The stems of the small knap- 

 weed are erect in general direction, but freely branched. 

 They attain a height of from one to two feet, or some- 

 times in hedge-banks even more than this. There is often a 

 slight downy substance on the stems, while the stems them- 

 selves, and especially the lower portions of them", are not 

 unfrequently tinged a purplish-red. The lateral branches 

 spring in an alternate arrangement from the central stems. 

 These lateral stems have a curious way of increasing in 

 bulk and thickness as they approach the flower-heads. The 

 leaves are rather rough and harsh to the touch, and of 

 a somewhat dull green, and many of them have a slightly 

 cottony under-surface. The leaves vary in form, according 

 to their position on the plant, the upper leaves being of 

 the form called lanceolate, or like a lance-head in shape ; 

 these are almost, or entirely, without any unevenness of out- 

 line, and those that are nearest the flower-heads are 

 generally much smaller than the others. As the eye runs 

 down the plant, we find the margins of the leaves growing 

 more notched. The lower leaves are much longer and 

 broader, too, in proportion to their length, than the upper, 

 and their outlines are often deeply serrated or lobed. Tlie 

 involucres, whence the florets spring, are globular and 

 dense, thickly clothed with overlapping scales that are 

 much fringed at their margins. These scales are very 



