406 COMPOSITE. Centaurea. 



head surrounded by large and leafy accessory bracts. — Carheni, Adans. Fam. 

 ii. IIG. Cnicus, Gairtn., DC, not L. 



C. BENEofcTA, L. (Blesseu Thistle.) Low and branching annual, hirsute or pubescent : 

 leaves prominently reticulated, sinuate-pinnatifid or laciuiate-dentate, the teeth or margins 

 weakly prickly ; lower attenuate at base ; upper narrowly oblong, partly clasping by broud 

 base: heads sessile, inch and a lialf high, equalled by the oblong involucral leaves: proper 

 involucre of thin-coriaceous bracts in few ranks, all or most of them abruptly tipped with an 

 aristiform or spinesceut and pectinately prickly spreading appendage : receptacle very 

 densely setose with long and soft capillary bristles : corollas light yellow : longer bristles of 

 the pappus alternating with inner and witli the teeth of the akene. — Spec. ed. 2, ii. 129G; 

 Sibth. Flora Grteca, t. 906. Cnicus benedictiis, L. Spec. ed. 1, i. 826 ; Gsertn. Fruct. ii. t. 162 ; 

 DC. Prodr. vi. 606; Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 45.5. — Waste grounds, at seaports and elsewhere 

 near dwellings, in the Southern Atlantic States and in California; not common. (Nat. 

 from Eu.) 



§ 2. Ckntaurea proi)er. Akenes more or less compressed or quadrangular : 

 pappus of indefinite (either scanty or numerous) bristles or narrow pale* : invo- 

 lucre globular or ovoid. 



* Old World species, sparingly naturalized, with comparatively small heads: scar or insertion of 

 akene lateral. 



+— Bracts of tiie involucre (or some of them) armed with a rigid spine or prickle, and also more 

 or less spinulose along its sides or base: cartilaginous appendages terminating the anthers 

 commonly elongated and connate: ours annuals, none with the marginal corollas enlarged. — 

 Cidciirapa, Jiiss. 



C. CALcfxRAPA, L. (Star Thistle.) Low, much branched, diffusely spreading, green, glar 

 brate or hairy ; leaves narrow, laciuiate-pinnatifid ; uppermost soniewliat iuvolucrate-erowded 

 at base of the sessile heads : principal bracts of the involucre becoming corneous, armed with 

 a widely spreading very long and rigid spine, which bears 2 or 3 spinules on each side at 

 base: corollas purple or purjdish: pappus wanting. — Engl. Bot. t. 125; Torr. & Gray, Fl. 

 ii. 454. — Sparingly establislied at seaports from New York southward, chiefly as a mere 

 ballast-weed. (Nat. from Eu.) 



C. solstitiAlis, L. Erect, a foot or two high, canesceut with cottony wool: radical leaves 

 lyrate-pinuatifid ; cauliue lanceolate and linear, mostly entire, decurrent on the brandies in 

 narrow wings : heads naked, somewhat pedunculate : intermediate bracts of the globular in- 

 volucre tipped with a long spreading spine, having one or two sjiinules at base; outermost 

 bearing a few small palnuite prickles ; innermost only scariou.s-tipped : corollas yellow : pap- 

 pus double; outer of sliort and squamellate, inner of longer bristles. — Engl. Bot. t. 243; 

 Beiclienb. Ic. Fl. Germ. t. 795; Gray, Bot. Calif, i. 421. — Near San Francisco and San 

 Diego, California, sparingly introduced. (Nat. from Eu.) 



C. Meliten'Sis, L. Erect, 2 to 4 feet high, paniculately branciied, cinereous-pubescent, some- 

 what woolly at first : radical leaves lyrate-pinnatifid ; cauliue lanceolate or linear, mostly 

 entire, narrowly decurrent on the branches : heads smaller, sessile or 1-2-leaved at base : 

 principal bracts of involucre bearing a spreading slender spine of about their own length, 

 which is ])ectinately spinulose towards its base; innermost witli simply spinescent tip; outer- 

 most usually with the central spine reduced and the spinules palmate : corollas yellow : 

 pappus of very unequal rigid bristles or squamellaj : akene lightly costate. — Sibth. Flora 

 Gra!ca, t. 909 ; Reichenb. Ic. Fl. Germ. xv. t. 796 ; Gray, Bot. Calif. 1. c. — Fields, California 

 and Arizona, rather common. (Nat. from Eu.) 



-H- -(— Bracts of the involucre unarmed, most of them terminated by a scarioiis discolored fimbri- 

 ate-ciliate or lacerate appendage. — Jacea, Platylnphus, Cyanus, &c., Cass. 



-H- Perennials, with rose-purple flowers: pappus obsolete. 

 C. NfoRA, L. (Knapweed, Hardheads.) A foot or two high, branching, roughish-pubescent : 

 leaves lanceolate and entire, or lower sparingly toothed : most of the involucral bracts with 

 strongly pectinately ciliate fringed blackish appendages, these only conspicuous : flowers all 

 hermaphrodite, marginal ones not enlarged or rarely so. — Fl. Dan. t. 606; Engl. Bot. t. 278. 

 — Fields, Newfoundland to E. New England. (Nat. from Eu.) 



