The small tubular flowers are 5-pointed, and the thread-like stamens and pistils are prominent; their color is lavender, while the stamens and pistils are white. They are gathered into tufted heads, enclosed in a gray-green vase-shaped cup, that is protected by short weak prickles; they grow in loose, branching clusters on the top of the plant. This Thistle grows in great communities, spreading rapidly, and justly considered a pest by the farmer. The mass of its lavender colored bloom in its prime is pleasing to the eye, but later it develops an unkempt and weedy aspect, more befitting its character of an unwelcome tramp. Its flowers are sweet scented, and much sought by bees and butterflies. [Illustration: CANADA THISTLE: C. arvensis.] *Spiny-leaved Sow Thistle.* _Sonchus asper._ Found in cultivated fields, and along roadsides, in August. The stalk is either simple, or branching near the top, from 2 to 3 or 4 feet high, large, round, and very hollow like a tube, and juicy; it is grooved, and smooth to the touch. The color is green, sometimes streaked with red near the foot. The leaf is very long (sometimes 10 inches), lance-shaped with a tapering point, and noticeable rounded wing-like bases; the margin is deeply and irregularly toothed, and the edge is rolled under, thus making the teeth sharp-pointed, and stiff, like little spines; the midrib is prominent beneath, wide, flat, and pale above; underneath many veins show; the texture is thin, and the surface is smooth. The upper side is a cool clear green, the underside silvery, with a pale bloom. It is clasping, the prolonged bases flaring like wings on either side of the stalk. The flowers are tiny and downy; light yellow in color; gathered in a flat-topped head (which is less than an inch across), enclosed in a small vase-shaped, green, and leafy cup. The heads are set on slender stems, in loose terminal groups, or singly on short leafy stems from the angles of the leaves; at the junction of these foot-stems small, oval leaves occur. Nothing could be more suggestive of decorative design than the fine arch and spring of this leaf, with its ornamental winged clasps; and its refinement of color is an added excellence. The highly inappropriate folk-name (it is said to be a favorite article of diet among the English swine) should be abolished, and the plant called instead The Gothic Thistle in memory of a school who could appreciate its sculptural significance better than the moderns. [Illustration: SPINY-LEAVED SOW THISTLE: Sonchus asper.] *Common Sow Thistle.* _Sonchus oleraceus._ Found in fields, and cultivated lands in August. The stalk varies in height from 1 to 4 feet; it is single, and leafy, somewhat twisting, tougher in fibre than _S. asper_, hollow, with a milky juice, and smooth. Color, a cool green.