COMPOSITE. 



457 



on both sides. Flower-heads in axillary 

 clusters, or short terminal racemes ; 

 the upper ones male ; the lower female 

 heads forming, when in fruit, ovoid 

 burrs, about 6 to 8 lines long, covered 

 with hooked prickles ; the stout, short, 

 conical beaks, erect or turned inwards. 



In cultivated and waste places, through- 

 out central and southern Europe and 

 central Asia, extending, as a weed of 

 cultivation, northwards to the Baltic, as 

 well as into many other parts of the 

 globe. Has been occasionally found in 

 some of the southern counties of Eng- 

 land and Ireland, but is not a truly 

 British plant. FL summer. 



Fig. 543. 



XXI. BURDOCK. ARCTIUM. 



A single species, distinguished as a genus from Thistles by the 

 foliage, by the bracts of the involucre ending in a long, stiff point 

 hooked at the extremity, and by the short, stiff pappus. 



1. Common Burdock. Arctium Lappa, Linn. (Fig. 547.) 

 (Eng.'Bot. t. 1228. A. Bardana, Eng. Bot. t. 2478.) 



A stout, branching, erect biennial, 3 to 5 feet high, the lower heart- 

 shaped leaves very large, sometimes attaining 1^ feet in length by a 

 foot in breadth ; the upper ones much smaller, and broadly ovate ; all 

 green, and nearly glabrous above, often covered with a short, white, 

 cottony down underneath, bordered by minute teeth, but not prickly. 

 Flower-heads in terminal panicles. Involucres nearly globular, gla- 

 brous or covered with a loose, white, cottony wool, catching at anything 

 they come in contact with by the hooked points of their numerous 

 bracts. Florets purple, all equal. Anthers with hair-like appendages 

 at their base. Achenes large, with a short pappus of stiff hairs. 



In waste places, on roadsides, etc., over all Europe and Russian Asia, 

 except the extreme north, and naturalized in other parts of the globe. 

 Common in Britain. Fl. summer. It varies much in the size of the 



VOL. I. 2k 



