Echinops is a genus of upwards of seventy species, 
ranging from Europe and North Africa, across Asia to 
China and Japan, and a few species are peculiar to the 
mountains of Tropical Africa. The European, Asiatic and 
North African species present no striking contrasts, and 
have either white or blue flowers; but some of the Tropical 
African species are very different from each other and from — 
the rest of the genus. Thus £. amplexicaulis, Oliv., has 
pink or crimson flowers; E. giganteus, A. Rich., grows as 
much as 16 ft. high, and L. chamaecephalus, Hochst., is 
almost stemless with huge solitary heads of flowers. 
The process of the dispersal of the pollen of Lchinops 
is the same as in Centaurea. It is discharged into the 
cylinder formed by the connate anthers before the expansion 
of the corolla and the elongating style pushes some of it out 
at the top, whilst the rest is ejected by a sudden contraction 
of the filaments, which pulls the anthers down. But the female 
stage, the divergence of the style-arms, sometimes follows so 
quickly in E. Tournefortii, that self-fertilisation seems possible. 
Descriprion.—Perennial, from 3-5 ft. high. Leaves 
large, pinnately divided, lower ones tripinnate, 1 to 14 ft. 
long, gradually smaller and less divided upwards, ultimate 
lobes ending in strong spines, slightly rough on the upper 
surface, clothed with a white felt beneath. /lower-heads 
few, globose, 24-3 in. or sometimes as much as 5 in. in 
diameter, terminal on long stalks, each flower surrounded 
rs an involucre of bristles and sharp-pointed bracts. 
orolla white, tubular, slightly overtopping the bracts; 
limb 5-parted; lobes linear, reflexed. Anthers exserted, 
blue. Achenes densely clothed with long, straight, coarse 
hairs. Pappus of five small scales, concealed by the hairs. 
—W. Borrine Hemsiey. 
Cuntivation.—Echinops Tournefortii grows freely and 
flowers in August along with the other Globe Thistles and 
appears to be quite as hardy as any of them. It came 
originally from Canon Ellacombe’s garden at Bitton, where 
the plant figured was grown in 1906.—W. Warson. 
Fig. 1, a flower-head of one flower; 2,a flower; 3 and 4, pappus; 5 and 6, 
anthers ; 7, style-arms :—adl enlarged. 
