COMPOSITE. 11 



Specimens from Orkney have the under side of the leaves nearly 

 as white as those of Cirsium nemorale of Reichenbach, which is 

 doubtless merely an extreme variety of Carduus lanceolatus. 



Spear- Thistle. 



French, Cirse Lanceole. German, Lanzettliche Kratzdistel. 



Dr. Withering says, — " Few plants are more disregarded than this, and yet its 

 use is very considerable. If a heap of clay be thrown up, nothing would grow 

 upon it for several years, did not the seeds of this plant, wafted by the win<l, fix and 

 vegetate thereon. Under the shelter of this, other vegetables appear, and the whole 

 soon becomes fertile. The flowers, like those of the artichoke, have the property of 

 curdling milk." 



SPECIES v.— CARDUUS ERIOPHORUS. Lhm. 



Plate DCLXXXVII. 



Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Yol. XV. Tab. DCCCXXII. 



Cirsium eriophorum. Scop. Koch, Syn. Fl. Germ, et Helv. ed. ii. p. 453. Gr. (fe Godr. 



FL de Fr. Vol. II. p. 211. 

 Cuicus eriophorus, Willd. Hook. & Am. Brit. Fl. p. 237. 



Biennial. Stem elongated, branched, not winged. Radical leaves 

 attenuated at the base, petiolate, greatly undulated, pinnatipar- 

 tite ; segments bifid, with both the lobes entire ; stem-leaves semi- 

 amplexicaul, not decurrent, similar to the radical leaves, but with 

 the segments (at least in the upper ones) simple, upper surface with 

 very minute bristle-like spines, under surface hoary. Anthode 

 solitary at the extremity of the stem and branches, or more rarely 

 aggregated in pairs. Pericline globose, copiously arachnoid, with 

 short floral leaves at the base, which do not overtop the flowers ; 

 phyllaries adpressed, narrowly lanceolate, gradually acuminated 

 into a narrow spreading point, which is slightly dilated towards the 

 apex, ciliated at the margins, central nerve of the outer ones 

 excurrent into a short stout spine. Pappus plumose. 



On dry pastures and in waste places, particularly on chalk 

 and limestone. Local. Distributed through the greater part of 

 England; though probably not wild in the North. In Scotland, 

 it occasionally occurs, but only where it has almost certainly 

 escaped from cultivation. 



England, [Scotland], Ireland. Biennial. Late Summer 



and Autumn. 



Stem stout, furrowed, woolly, 3 to 5 feet high, corymbosely 

 branched towards the apex. Lowest leaves very large, often 2 

 feet long ; stem-leaves much smaller, all very deeply pinnatifid, 

 with strapshaped lobes joined together in pairs in the lower ones, 



