As vainly
may farmers try to exterminate a composite that has once taken
possession of their fields.
Blazing hot sunny fields, in which black-eyed Susan feels most
comfortable, suit the TALL or GREEN-HEADED CONE-FLOWER OR
THIMBLEWEED (R. laciniata) not at all. Its preference is for
moist thickets such as border swamps and meadow runnels.
Consequently it has no need of the bristly-hairy coat that
screens the yellow daisy from too tierce, sunlight, and great
need of more branches and leaves. (See prickly pear.) This is a
smooth, much branched plant, towering sometimes twelve feet high,
though commonly not even half that height; its great lower
leaves, on long petioles, have from three to seven divisions
variously lobed and toothed; while the stem leaves are
irregularly three to five parted or divided. The numerous showy
heads, which measure from two and a half to four inches across,
have from six to ten bright yellow rays drooping a trifle around
a dull greenish-yellow conical disk that gradually lengthens to
twice its breadth, if not more, as the seeds mature.
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