CLASS V. ORDER n.] ERYNGIUM. 351 



lant aud restorative when candied with sugar; and from Shatspeare's 

 account by Falstaf, was much esteemed when made into *' kissing 

 comfits;" it has also been used in medicine as a stimulating tonic, 

 but its power is so slight as now to be discarded. The young tops are 

 said to be used in Sweden and Crete in the same way as asparagus. 



2. E. campes'trie, Linn. (Fig. 414.) Field Eryngo. Leaves reticu- 

 lated with veins, teeth spinous, the radical ones on footstalks, sub- 

 ternate, the lobes pinnatifid, the upper ones embracing the stem, with 

 deep narrow rigid spinous teeth ; involucre of numerous lanceolate 

 spinous segments, longer than the small sub-rotuudate heads of flowers, 

 scales of the receptacle entire. 



English Botany, t. 57. — English Flora, vol. ii. p. 35. — Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 127. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 127. 



Root long, round, stout, flesh. Stern round, smooth, striated, very 

 much branched above in a corymbose manner, and leafy, of a pale 

 glaucous green. Leaves numerously netted with pale veins and an 

 obtuse margin, the radical ones large, on long stout footstalks, finely 

 striated, divided into three, the middle one largest, deeply divided in a 

 pinnalifid manner, lobed, and the margin with teeth, pointed with long 

 sharp spines, the stem leaves sessile, opposite, embracing the stem with 

 a spinous auricular appendage on each side, deeply divided into three 

 lobes, in a pinnatifid manner, with long narrow spinous teeth. Invo- 

 lucre of numerous narrow lanceolate spinous segments of variable 

 lengths, some longer than the heads of flowers, some shorter. Flowers 

 numerous, white or purplish, on a conical receptacle, each flower having 

 at its base a long narrow simple spinous scale. Calyx with a limb of 

 five lanceolate single ribbed spinous segments, longer than the corolla. 

 Petals erect, alternating with the segments of the calyx, oblong, 

 notched at the apex, between which is abruptly inflexed a long narrow 

 point, as long as the petal. Stamens alternating with the petals. 

 Filaments long, slender, curved inwards, until the oblong purplish 

 anther bursts. Styles long, slender, spreading. Stigmas simple, 

 obtuse. Fruit oblong, ovate, nearly round, on a transverse section 

 closely covered with pale thin membranous pointed scales, without 

 ridges or vittae. 



Habitat. — Waste sterrile ground, especially near the sea; very rare. 

 Near Plymouth ; Newcastle-upon-'J'yne, and St. Peter's Quay, North- 

 umberland; near Daventry ; and in Ireland, near Lismore, Waterford. 

 — Mr. Drummond. 



Perennial ; flowering in July and August. 



This species, very frequent on the Continent, possesses similar pro- 

 perties to the above, and appears to have been used for the same 

 purposes ; but, like it, is now out of use. 



