152 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



Sonchus alpinus, Linn. Benth. Handbook Brit. Bot. p. 326. 

 Sonchus cseruleus, Gamer. Sm. Eng. Bot. No. 2425. 

 Cicerbitus alj^ina, Wallr. Sched. Crit. p. 434. 



Leaves glabrous, the lower ones lyrate- and runcinate-pin- 

 natifid, with a large deltoid-acuminate terminal lobe ; uppermost 

 leaves lanceolate or strapshaped-lanceolate, undivided. Anthodes 

 racemose or in a racemose panicle. Rachis and pedicels with 

 gland-tipped hairs, the latter with long bracts at the base. 

 Pericline oblong-cylindrical, sparingly glandular-hairy. Achenes 

 cylindrical - prismatic, slightly attenuated 'towards the apex, 

 scarcely at all compressed. 



On moist places on alpine rocks. Very rare. On Lochnagar, 

 Aberdeenshire ; Glen Callater, Glen Isla, and Glen Dole, Clova, 

 iForfarshire. 



Scotland. Perennial. Autumn. 



Stem thick, succulent, hollow, furrowed, 18 inches to 4 feet 

 high, simple up to the inflorescence. Lower leaves large, attenuated 

 into winged petioles, which are dilated at the base and amplexicaul, 

 with rather blunt auricles, the winged j)ortion usually giving off 

 a few pairs of segments much smaller than the terminal one ; 

 all the segments dentate or denticulate ; upper leaves somewhat 

 rhomboidal, elliptical-amplexicaul ; uppermost ones very narrow, 

 passing gradually into the long slender bracts of the inflorescence. 

 Anthodes f to 1 inch across, pale-blue. Inner phyllaries nearly 

 equal, generally purplish ; outer ones few, unequal ; all with a few 

 jointed gland-tipped hairs down the middle. Pappus of rather 

 coarse dirty- white hairs. Plant light-green, the leaves and lower 

 part of the stem glabrous. 



Blue Sow-thistle. 



French, Laitron des Alpes. German, Gebirges Milchlattich. 



GENUS XXXIX— S O N C H U S. Linn. 



Anthodes many-flowered. Pericline oblong-ovoid, of numerous 

 phyllaries, imbricated in several series, the outer ones much 

 shorter. Clinanth naked. Achenes compressed or sub-com- 

 pressed, ribbed, not terminated by a beak or cup- shaped disk. 

 Pappus of white slender capillary hairs. 



Herbs, rarely soft wooded shrubs, with leafy stems and irregu- 

 larly-corymbose rather large anthodes. Plorets yellow. 



