384 SYNGENESIA— POLYGAMIA-.^LQU. Carduus. 

 384. CARDUUS. Thistle. 



Linn. Gen. 408. Jim. 1 73. Fl. Br. 847. sp. 2, 3, 4, 7. Lam. t. 663. 

 Silybum. Gcertn. t. 163. 



Common Cal. tumid, imbricated, of numerous, lanceolate, 

 spinous-pointed scales, permanent. Cor. compound, near- 

 ly or quite uniform ; Jlorets very numerous, perfect, equal, 

 tubular, funnel-shaped ; tube slender, recurved ; limb 

 ovate at the base, with 5 linear segments, one of which 

 is a little distant from the rest. Filam. capillary, very 

 short. Anth. in a 5-toothed cylindrical tube, about equal 

 to the corolla. Germ, obovate. S/j/le thread-shaped, pro- 

 minent. Stigma simple, or cloven, oblong, naked. Seed- 

 vessel none but the converging unaltered calyx. Seed po- 

 lished, obovate, with 4- slight unequal angles, and a slen- 

 der, terminal, cylindrical point. Down sessile, capillary, 

 rough, very long, annular at the base, embracing the 

 point of the seed, and, when that shrinks, deciduous. 

 Recept. flat, hairy. 



Herbage beset with innumerable straight spines, on the 

 margins and teeth of the leaves, and wings of the stem. 

 Fl. crimson or purple, terminal, solitary or aggregate ; 

 casually white ; often imperfectly dioecious. Root mostly 

 annual or biennial. 



* Leaves deeiirrent. 



1. Q. nutans. Musk Thistle. 



Leaves interruptedly decurrent, spinous. Flowers solitary, 



drooping. Calyx-scales lanceolate; their upper part 



spreading. 



C. nutans. Linn. Sp. PL 1 150. IVilld. v. 3. 1 648. Fl. Br. 848. 



Engl. Bot. v.\6. t. 1112. Hook. Scot. 235. Fl. Dan. t. 675. 



Rail Syn. 1 93. Bauh. Hist. v. 3. p. 1 . 56./. 

 C. n. 167. Hall. Hist. V. 1.73. 

 C. muscatus. Ger.Em. 1174; descr. only. 

 Acanthium sylvestre. Besl. Hort. Eyst.cestiv. ord. 11. t.S.f. 2. 

 Onopyxos tertius. Dalech. Hist. 1472. f. 

 Musk Thistle. Petiv. H. Brit. t.2\.f.\. 

 In waste ground, fallow fields, and dry barren pastures, on a chalky 



or gravelly soil. 

 Annual. July, August. 

 Root spindle-shaped. Stem erect, 2 or 3 feet high, solid, more 



or less branched, many-angled, with narrow, leafy, sinuated, 



spinous wings, running down from the pinnatifid, slightly hairy 



