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six-leaved involucre, spreading and reflex. It is a native of Austria, 

 Sec. flowering in July. 



There is a variety with white stalks and flowers. 



The third has a creeping root, iiinning deep into the ground. 

 The leaves roundish, stiff", gray, set with sharp spines on the edges. 

 The stems a foot high, branched, smooth, having at each joint leaves 

 of the same form with the lower ones, but smaller. The flowers come 

 out at the ends of the branches in roundish prickly heads, and are of 

 a whitish blue colour; under each head is a range of narrow, stiff", 

 prickly leaves, spreading like the rays of a star. The flowers appear 

 in July. It is a native of Britain, &c. The young floAvering-shoots 

 when eaten as asparagus are very grateful, and of a nourishing qua- 

 lity. 



The fourth species has the lower leaves divided like the fingers of 

 a hand, into five or six segments, which are very much cut at their 

 extremities into many parts, and have small spines. The stem is 

 about two feet high, Avith smaller and more divided leaves. The 

 upper part of the stem, and also the heads of flowers, are of the finest 

 amethystine colour, making a fine appearance. It is a native of 

 Styria, flowering in July. 



The fifth species has a perennial root. The leaves are cordate 

 and toothed, the lower on long petioles, the upper stem-clasping. 

 The lower leaves resemble those of Cacalia, but are more acute, and 

 the teeth end in a soft spine. Amethystine leaves surround the ob- 

 long head of flowers ; some of them bristle-form and reflex, others 

 pinnalifid and lanceolate. It is curious, according to Villars, on ac- 

 count of the beauty of the involucres, which are of a vinous azure 

 (blue, mixed with green and white. It is a native of Switzer- 

 land, &c. 



Culture. — Some of these plants may be increased by seed, and 

 the others by planting their creeping roots. 



The first, second, fifth, and sixth sorts are raised by sowing the 

 seeds, in the first on a hot-bed or in pots plunged into it, but in the 

 others in the autumn, in the places where the plants are to grow. 



