Centaurea. COAIPOSITiE. 405 



^ = Heads large, oblong or cylinclraceou5, commonly solitan' and pedunculate: involucral 

 bracts comparatively large, gradually aciuniiiate into a mncronate cusp or weak and sliort 

 prickle, glabrate, tlie viscid dorsal ridge narrow: corollas purple: leaves when 3'oung canes- 

 cently floccose-woolly iKiieath, oblong-linear or uariowly lanceolate. 



C. repandus, Ell. A foot or two high, leafy : leaves mostly undulate-lobulate, rather 

 densely prickly at margins : heads inch and a half long : involucre narrow-canij)anulate. — 

 Sk. ii. 2G9 ; Gray, 1. c. Cirsinm repandiim, Michx. Fl. ii. 80; DC. Prodr. vi. G51. Carduus 

 repandus, Pcrs. Syu. ii. 386. C. Virginiunus, Walt. Car. 195? — Dry idue barrens, N. Caro- 

 lina to Florida. 



C. Lecontei, Gray. Stem slender liut rigid, commonly simple and bearing a single con- 

 spicuously pedunculate head (of full 2 inclies in height) : leaves sparsely dentate or pinnatifid- 

 lobulate, with scattered prickles : involucre cylindraceous. — I'roc. Am. Acad. x. 39. Cnicus 

 Virfjinianus, Hook. Comp. Bot. Mag. i. 48. Cirsium Lecontei, Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 458. — 

 "Wet ])ine barrens, Georgia to Florida and Louisiana; first coll. by LeConte. 



== = == Heads inch and a half high, rather broad: involucre arachnoid-woolly; its principal 

 bracts broad and pointless. Atlantic species. 



C. muticus, PuRsn. Obscurely arachnoid when young aud with some villosity : stem 3 to 

 8 feet high, branching above : leaves deeply piunatifid, sparsely weak-prickly, glabrate : in- 

 volucre sometimes glabrate in age : bracts with broad and short viscid ridge or spot just 

 beneath the obtuse or acutish sometimes mucronulate apex, lowest ovate or oblong and very 

 short, innermost linear : flowers rose-purple. — Gray, 1. c. C. glutinosiis, Bigel. Fl. Bost. ed. 2, 

 291, not Lam. Carduus muticus and perhaps C. glaher, Nutt. Gen. ii. 129. Cirsium muti- 

 cum, Michx. Fl. ii. 89; DC. 1. c; Torr. & Gray, FL ii. 458, e.xcl. syn. of the var.?, which is 

 a more rigid form, growing iu open ground. C. Bigelovii, DC. 1. c. — Low ground and 

 shady swamps, Newfoundland to Saskatchewan, Florida, aud Louisiana. 



199. ONOPORDON, Vaill. Cotton Thistle. (Old Greek name, mean- 

 ino: Asses' Thistle.) — Large ami stout biennials of the Old World, one sparingly- 

 naturalized ; fl. late sixmmer. — DC. Prodr. vi. 617. Oaopordum, L. 



O. acAnthium, L. White with cottony wool : stem 3 to 9 feet high, branching, winged 

 throughout by decurrence of the large oblong sinuate-lohed and ])rickly leaves ; wings sinu- 

 ate, very prickly : heads pretty large : involucre globular, arachnoid or partly glabrate ; 

 bracts rigid, subulate and prickly ti))ped, squarrose : corollas light purple or paler: pappus 

 fuscous, scabrous, not twice the length of the slightly rugose akene. — Fl. Dan. t. 909 ; Engl. 

 Bot. t. 907. — Waste grounds near dwellings and roadsides in Atlantic States, not abundant. 

 (Nat. from Eu.) 



200. SfLYBUM, Vaill. Milk Thistle. (ltXv(3o<s, ancient Greek name 

 of an edible-stemmed Thistle, perhaps the present plant.) — Single species. 



S. MariAxu-m, G.crtn. Prickly-leaved biennial or annual, glabrate or nearly glabrous ; with 

 ampjle sinmite or pinnatifid green leaves, blotched with white along the veins : corollas rose- 

 purple, deeply cleft. — Escaped from gardens in a few places, also a ballast-weed, disposed to 

 be naturalized southward, especially in California: fl. summer. (Adv. from Eu.) 



201. CENTAURliA, L. Star Thistle, &c. (Kcvraupctor, plant of the 

 Centaurs, name applied by the herbalists to two or three widely different genera.) 

 — An immense genus in the Old World, one species only indigenous to N. 

 America, two or three in Chili. — Centaurea & Carhenia (Adans.), Benth. & 

 Hook. Gen. PI. ii. 477, 482. 



§ 1. Carbenia. Akcnes terete, strongly many-striate, with lateral scar, the 

 corneous margin at summit 10-dentate : pajipus double, each of 10 aristiform 

 bristles, outer longer and naked, inner short and fimbriolate : anthers with elon- 

 gated cartilaginous terminal appendages, which are connate to their blunt tips : 



