The stem leaves are chiefly sessile, deeply cut or pinnatifid. Ragwort grows most abundantly and most luxuriantly in swamps or moist ground, but is also found in dry places or stony pastures. Its range extends from Newfoundland to Wisconsin and southward.
(B) Arnica (Arnica mollis). The slightly hairy stem grows from 1 to 2 feet tall. The basal leaves are long petioled but the stem ones are sessile and opposite, shallow-toothed. At the summit are one to nine flower-heads on slender peduncles. About the central disc are 10 to 14 yellow rays, each with three notches in their ends. Canada and the mountains of northern U. S.
Burdock (Arctium minus) (European) is a very common plant on waste ground, along roadsides and the edges of woods. The plant is often 4 feet or more high. The lower leaves are very large, often more than a foot in length, heart-shaped, deep green and finely veined above, grayish beneath because of the fine wool that covers the under surfaces. The upper leaves are smaller, more ovate in form, and less densely wooly on the undersides. The flower-heads grow in clusters at the ends of the branches. The involucre is almost spherical, composed of numerous bracts, each terminating in a sharp, hooked point. Tubular florets, only, are seated within this involucre; they are purple and white in color, and secrete an abundance of nectar on which account they are frequented by honey bees.
The present species adopts the policy of the [Beggar-ticks], but instead of single seeds, it attaches the whole bur-like head by means of its numerous little hooks. They cling tenaciously to everything they touch; doubtless most of my readers recall massing these burs together to make castles, funny men, animals, etc.
Canada Thistle (Cirsium arvense) (European) is a small-flowered, perennial species that has strayed across the ocean and become a pernicious weed.
The stem is rather slender, branching, and grows from 1 to 3 feet in height. It grows from a perennial, creeping rootstalk, that is, as farmers have discovered, very difficult to eradicate from the soil. It grows in extensive colonies and, unless strenuous efforts are made to destroy them, they very soon take possession of a field to the exclusion of almost everything else.
The leaves, that grow alternately and closely together on the stem, are long, lance-shaped, deeply cut into sharply prickled lobes. Numerous flower-heads, about one inch across, terminate the branches. When in full bloom, the florets vary in color from rose-purple to white; the involucre is almost globular and covered with over-lapping bracts, each with a tiny, sharp, out-turned point.
All the thistles yield an abundance of nectar and are frequented by bees and butterflies.