YELLOW AND YELLOWISH FLOWERS 
Annual Sow Thistle. Hare's Lettuce (Sonchus oleraceus). 
Composite family. May to October. 
An annual with flowers like small dandelions. The practically 
smooth stem is one to eight feet or more high. Flower-heads 
light-yellow, on long stalks, loosely clustered, florets all perfect; 
involucre shaped like a broad vase. The leaves suggest Dande- 
lion leaves, lower with stalks, upper clasping the stem. Waste 
places. Spiny-leaved Sow Thistle {Sonchus asper) is similar 
but with leaves less cut and more spiny. Milk Thistle {Sonchus 
arvensis), a perennial, is similar to Sow Thistle but sometimes 
reaches ten feet, and its lower leaves have not the long leaf- 
stalks. 
Elecampane {Inula Helenium). Composite family. 
August. 
A branching perennial with stout stem, several feet high, 
and flower-heads two to four inches across, with narrow, pistil- 
late rays, and yellow, later dark, centre of perfect, tubular 
florets. The leaves are large, coarse, light-green, woolly on 
the under surface ; those from the root egg-shaped and stalked, 
the others clasping the stem. Mathews well describes the 
flower as " showy but somewhat dishevelled." Roadsides and 
fields. 
Golden Ragwort {Senecio aureus). Composite family. 
May to July. 
An upright perennial with simple stem averaging two feet. 
The flower-heads (considerably under an inch broad), with 
yellow pistillate rays, are on long stalks, terminal and axillary. 
The leaves are thin, those from the root simple and round or 
heart-shaped on long stalks ; the lower stem-leaves are pinnately 
divided, with a large lobe at the end, the upper are lance-shaped, 
pinnately cut, without stalks or partly clasping. Common in 
fields. The name, from senex, old man, doubtless referred to 
the hoary appearance when in fruit. 
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