The Ragwort is a very common plant. It grows everywhere, and is in
flower in late summer and autumn.
It is a stout and rather coarse plant, with bunches of small yellow
daisies growing on short forks which branch from the top of the main
stem.
These daisies are rather poor looking, and they are made up of a great
many little flowers crowded together inside a green cup, and a few of
the flowers round the edge of the cup have yellow straps which are thin
and straggling.
The yellow tube flowers in the centre are evenly nicked all round the
mouth, and they have yellow stamens whose heads you can see forming a
circle round the yellow tip of the seed-vessel with its two curled
points.
The stems of the Ragwort are sometimes white and woolly, and they are
covered all over with deep ridges.
The leaves are dark green and shiny. They are long and feather-shaped,
and are deeply cut up almost to the centre rib, forming narrow green
horns on each side of it.
PLATE X: 1. CROSSWORT. 2. BITING STONECROP.
3. YELLOW BEDSTRAW. 4. MUGWORT.