CYNARACEjE. 



Nat. syst. ed. 2. p. 251. 



CENTAUREA. 



Scales of involucre various. Florets of the ray almost always 

 enlarged and sterile, more seldom either not longer than the 

 disk, or <f. Achaenium compressed, with a lateral hilum in 

 front. Pappus consisting of rather filiform scabrous setae, usu- 

 ally in many rows, the inner row generally being smaller and 

 converging, seldom as long as or longer than the rest. DC. 



951. C. Calcitrapa Linn. sp. pi. 1297. Eng. Bot. t. 125. 



DC.prodr. vi. 597 Way sides all over Europe, especially in 



the South, in the Crimea, Candia, Egypt, Madeira. 



Stem between erect and diffuse, very much branched, hairy. Leaves 

 sessile, pinnatifid ; the lobes linear, acute, toothed. Heads ovate, 

 nearly sessile among the upper undivided leaves. Involucral scales ex- 

 tended into a long, strong, spreading spine which is channelled above, 

 and has 2 or 3 little spines on each side at the base ; the innermost 

 scarious and obtuse at the apex. Pappus 0, DC. — Has been used as 

 a febrifuge, and has even been preferred to gentian. 



952. C. Centaurium Linn. ; 953. C. Behen Linn. ; and 954. 

 C. Jacea Linn, have all similar properties, especially the first. 



955. Kentrophyllum lanatum DC. has been called Blessed 

 thistle on account of its supposed febrifugal powers. 



SILYBUM. 



Heads homogamous, many-flowered and equal-flowered. In- 

 volucre ovate; the scales leafy, the exterior dilated into an 

 ovate, long, spiny-pointed appendage, spiny-toothed in the 

 rounded part ; the inner ones lanceolate and entire. Receptacle 

 fleshy, fringed. Florets unequally 5-cleft, ringent, with the limb 

 twice as short as the tube. Stamens with monadelphous papil- 

 lose filaments ; anthers with short appendages. Fruit com- 

 pressed, smooth, with a broad central areola at the base, and a 

 terminal one bearing a horny pappose ring. Pappus in many 

 rows ; the setae shortly bearded. DC. 



t 956. S. Marianum Gartn. carp. ii. 378. t. 168. f. 2. DC.prodr. 

 vi. 616. — Carduus Marianus Linn. sp. pi. 1153. Eng. Bot. 

 t. 976. Smith Eng. El. iii. 386. — Waste places in many parts 

 of Europe ; also in the West of Asia, the East Indies, Madeira 

 and Chili. (Milk Thistle.) 



Root tap-shaped. Herb very large and spreading, to the exclusion 

 of all other plants, for the most part not hairy nor downy. Stem 4 or 

 5 feet high, in a manured soil more lofty, branched, round, solid, leafy. 

 467 h h 2 



