Carduus. | Lxxvir. composir#. (J. D. Hooker.) 361 
invol. bracts cobwebby triangular-lanceolate } in. long ending in very stout 
spreading flat keeled spines, innermost narrowly spathulate scarious shining 
apiculate serrate above, receptacular bristles scabrid, pappus 0. ©. ? Hystrix, 
Clarke Comp. Ind. 214, not of C. A. Meyer. 
Kasumir, alt. 5-6000 ft., Falconer, Thomson.—Distris. Affghanistan, Persia. 
A slender species, well characterised by the runcinate radical leaves, winged stems, 
and absence of pappus. 
86. CARDUTUS, Linn. 
Erect thistles. Zeaves alternate, often decurrent, serrate-toothed or pinnati- 
fid, spinescent. Heads solitary and long-peduncled or subsessile, scattered or 
crowded, homogamous ; fl. all and fertile (rarely dicecious), white yellow or 
red, tube slender, limb equal or oblique 5-fid. — Znvolucre ovoid hemispheric or 
globose; bracts oo -seriate, appressed, erect spreading or recurved and spinescent 
or with a spinescent appendage; receptacle flat or convex, densely bristly. 
Filaments hairy or glabrous. -Anther-bases sagittate, auricles connate, tails 
slender. Style-arms short, rarely filiform, obtuse. -Achenes glabrous, obovoid, 
obtusely 4-angled, smooth or 5-10-ribbed, truncate or the top umbonate, basal 
areole nearly straight; pappus copious, hairs oo -seriate, rigid, simple or barbel- 
late, deciduous with a basal ring.—Drsrrip. Species about 30; temp. Europe, 
N. Africa and Asia. 
1. C. nutans, L.; Boiss. Fl. Orient, ii. 515; biennial, cobwebby, tall, 
stem interruptedly winged, wings spinulous, leaves entire 1-2-pinnatifid waved 
spinous, heads 3-14 in. diam. solitary or fascicled hemispheric or subcampanu- 
late inclined or drooping, invol. bracts subulate-lanceolate outer or all terminat- 
ing in a spreading erect or reflexed spine, flowers crimson. DC. Prodr. vi. 
621; Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ. 146 ; Clarke Comp. Ind, 215. C. lucidus, Wall. Cat. 
2895. 
Western HriwALAYA; from Kashmir to Simla, alt. 6—12,000 ft.; and Hazara, in 
the Punsas. Western Tigër; Nubra, alt. 13,000 ft., Thomson.—Dtstrip. N. Asia, 
and westward to N. Africa and W. Europe. 
A tall stout thistle; stem 1-3 ft., usually simple, grooved, wing sinuous. Leaves 
6-12 in., variable. Achenes pale brown, glabrous, granulate.— Thomson, as quoted 
by Clarke, remarks that the Himalayan plant is intermediate between C. nutans and 
C. erispus, L. (C. acanthoides, Sm.), which has smaller more erect fascicled heads: the 
fact is that the Indian specimens show every transition between the large stout form 
of C. nutans with subsolitary heads 1} in. diam., which is its typical European state, 
and a more slender form with fascicled or solitary or subracemose or panicled heads 
2.1 in. diam. The invol. bracts are erect or recurved, though not so strongly as in 
most Western forms. A specimen collected by Jaeschke in Lahul has fascicled globose 
heads 1 in. diam., with the invol. bracts all short and very strongly recurved. Most 
of the Indian specimens exactly accord with a supposed hybrid between C. mutans and 
crispus found near Munich, and called C. acanthoides-nutans. 
2. C. Thomsoni, Hook. f; short, very robust, cottony or cobwebby above, 
leaves linear-oblong or lanceolate from a broadly auricled sessile base subpinna- 
tifidly lobed strongly spinous very coriaceous shining, heads 2-3 in. diam. few 
fascicled or s:beorymbose inclined densely woolly, invol. bracts short with a 
long strong spreading or recurved spine. Carduus P, Clarke Comp. Ind. 215. 
Western TIBET; Ladak, alt. 12—13,000 ft., Thomson. 
Annual; 12-18 in. high, leafy; stem simple, strongly ribbed. Leaves 6-8 in., 
lowest narrowed at the base, upper dilated, spines very strong horizontal. Jual, 
bracts 1 in. long, outer with spinulose margins; recept. bristles very dense, } in. long; 
corolla very slender, glabrous, 14 in.; filaments quite glabrous; anther-braets very 
long, laciniate. Achenes nearly } in., glabrous; pappus hairs stiff, very unequal, 
longest 1} in. 
