SYNGENESIA-POLYGAMIA-^QU. Cnicus. SS9 



In moist meadows or pastures, and watery spots by road sides, 

 common. 



Biennial. July, August. 



/ioo^ branching. //(?r6 very prickly, of a deep green. -5?^em' so- 

 litary, erect, straight, somewhat branched, from 3 to 5 or 6 

 feet high, angular, solid, clothed in every part with leafy, spi- 

 nous, interrupted wings. Leaves deeply pinnatifid, running down 

 into the wings, rough with short hairs, fringed with numerous 

 prickles j slightly cottony beneath. Fl. deep crimson, frequently 

 white, sessile, crov.'ded about the tops of the stem and branches, 

 and not a-third the size of the last. Cal. almost globular ^ its 

 scales smooth, close, abrupt, keeled in the upper part, each 

 bearing a small harmless spine ; the innermost with leafy un- 

 armed points. Seeds very smooth and even. Down finely fea- 

 thery. 



"** Leaves sessile, or partially deciirrent. Stem not winged, 



3. C. arvensis. Creeping Plume-thistle. 



Leaves sessile, pinnatifid, spinous, nearly smooth. Stem 

 panicled, solid. Calyx ovate; outer scales spinous. Root 

 creeping, tuberous. 



C. arvensis. Comp.ed.AAM. Hook. Scot, 237. Hosack in t/w 



American and Philos. Register, v. I. 211./. 

 Carduus arvensis. Curt. Land. fuse. G. /. ^7. Fl, Br. 850. En<fL 



Bot.v.\4. t.97D. Sibth. 245. 

 C. vulgatissimus viarum. Bali Syn. 191. Ger. Em. 1 1/3./. 

 Serratula arvensis. Linn. Sp. PL W 49. PVilld.v.3. 1646. Huds. 



349. With. 696. Mart. Bust. t. 132. Fl. Dan. t. 644. 

 Cirsium n. 1/1. Hall. Hist. v. 1. 74. 

 Ceanothos Theophrasti. Column. Ecphr. v. 1.45. t. 46. 

 Common Thistle. Petiv. H. Brit. t.2\./.5. 



Irv cultivated fields and by way side.s,.a very troublesome weed. 



Perennial. July. 



Boot fleshy, creeping deep in the earth to a great extent, and very 

 tenacious of life. Stems erect, 3 or 4 feet high, round, furrow- 

 ^d, full of ])ith, branched and panicled, leafy, but not winged, 

 occasionally more or less downy. Leaves numerous, alternate, 

 sessile, rarely a little decurrcnt, pinnatifid or sinuated, smooth, 

 or slightly downy, armed with numerous, strong, spreading 

 spines. Fl. numerous, stalked, panicled, erect, j)ale |Hirple, 

 sometimes white, for the most part dioecious in effect, though 

 incompletely so in structure, as the late Mr. T. Smith F L.S. has 

 well e\])l:iine(l in 7V. of Linn.Soc. v. 13.592 — ()()3. (V//. ovate j 

 its outer scales broadly lanceolate, decidedly s])inous, woolly at 

 the edges ; inner much longer, with leafy points, as in many 

 otluM undoubted species of Cnicus or Carduus. Seed-down co- 

 pious, delicately feathery. 



