•27. COMPOSIT.l': 



91 



less pinnatifid, with wavy, prickly edges, the upper ones 

 clasping the stem with hroad rounded auricles, but not 

 decurrent ; involucre large, globular; heads .solitary, ter- 

 minal ; flowers purple. 



oads and hillsides. — June-Feb. — Europe; 



Common 

 western Asia 



on r 



16. Onopordon, L. 



Invf)lucral bracts many, tapering into spines ; flowers 

 all tubular ; akenes obovoid, truncate, subquadrangular ; 

 pappus deciduous, of simple hairs in several rows; recep- 

 tacle without scales or bristles, but deeply honeycombed, and 

 each pit with jagged, toothed borders. 



Plant with a leafy, ' winged stem 



Plant stemloss ; heads sessile 



1. Onopordon Acanthium, 



Stiff, erect, woolly biennial, 

 branching at summit ; leaves ,>Knj 

 oval to lanceolate, sinuate- ^>^'j^ 

 toothed with spiny edges, white- J>^^^i! 

 woolly on both sides, decurrent 

 in broad spiny wings ; heads 

 large in terminal corymbs; invo- 

 lucre depressed-globular, bracts 

 white-woolly in lower part, Mith 

 long, sharp, orange spines, the 

 outer ones spreading ; pappus of 

 golden-brown hairs, scarcely twice 

 as long as the akene ; akenes 

 grey. wrinkled transversely; 

 flowers purplish. 



Horsuall's Gully ; Military 

 Road, near Glenelg ; near Port 

 Lincoln (J. H. Maiden). — Dec- 

 Feb. — Europe and western Asia, 

 but very rare in Scotland, al- 

 though generally supposed to be 

 the origin of the Scotti.sh heraldic 

 thistle. 



. O. Acanthium 1 

 . 0. ncnule 2 



L. Srnfcli' Thistle. 



Onopordon Acanthium. 



2. O. a,ca.ule, L. Strndcss Onopordon. Stem- 

 less biennial, with several sessile or subsessile heads 

 in the centre of a rosette of radical leaves ; leaves 

 large, softly white - tomentose on both sides, oblong, 

 pinnatifid, with spiny, wavy lobes ; involucre large, 

 globular with glabrous,' lanceolate bracts ending in 

 a very sliarp spine. the outer ones spreading; 

 pappus of dirty-white hairs, 5 times as long as 

 the akene, which is brown, striate longitudinally and 

 wrinkled transver.sely ; flowers white. 



