Tas. 5885. : 
CIRSIUM Granamt. 
Native of New Mexico. 
Nat. Ord. Composira.—Suborder CyNAROCEPHALE. 
Genus Cirsium, Tourn. ; (Endl. Gen. Pl., vol. i. p. 477). 
Cirsium Grahami ; caule 3-5-pedali apice parce ramoso, ramis monocephalis, 
foliis subtus cano-lanuginosis supra leviter arachnoideis mox nudis lan- 
ceolatis sinuatis v. subpinnatifidis spinuloso-ciliatis lobis dentibusve 
breviter spinosis, caulinis semi-amplexicaulibus hand decurrentibus, 
involucro ovoideo-globoso basi nudo v. bracteolis paucis parvis instructo, 
Squamis coriaceis appressis glabratis lanceolatis spinula brevi terminatis, 
corollis intense incarnatis. : 
Cirsium Grahami, A. Gray in Plant. Wright, Nov. Mecz., p- 102. 
The brilliant colouring of the flower-head of this thistle, 
together with its snow-white stems branches and under- 
face of the leaves, render it a very striking border plant in 
the garden. The seeds were sent to the Royal Gardens, 
Kew, from New Mexico, by Dr. Walker (late surgeon and 
naturalist of the Arctic Searching Expedition, under Captain 
Sir F. L. McClintock, R.N., which found the Franklin 
remains), and who is now travelling in N.W. America. It 
was discovered by the indefatigable botanical collector, Mr. 
Charles Wright, in 1851, when accompanying Col. Graham 
on the U.S. Boundary Commission, in low grounds of valleys 
between the Soniota and San Pedro, Sonora. 
As a species it comes very near to C. undulatum, Spreng., 
(C. Douglasii, DC.), and C. Hookerianum, Nutt., both natives 
of N.W. America, if indeed all these be not forms of one 
wide-spread and not very variable plant: it differs mainly in 
the more glabrous involucre, with much shorter, less recurved 
Spinulose tips to the bracts. 
FEBRUARY lst, 1871. 
