FLOWERING PLANTS. 121 
else; but a thistle which grew in three such widely separated 
stations ought still to be found. 
Carduus tenuiflorus, Curt. Slender-flowered Thistle. 
Native. First record: Babington, 1839. 
Common in the low-lying districts, especially near the sea. Less 
frequent in the south. 
Carduus lanceolatus, L. Spear Thistle. 
Native. First record: Babington, 1839. 
Common throughout the island on dry banks and in waste places 
and the borders of fields. , 
The pappus of the fruit, or ‘thistledown,’ makes an excellent 
stuffing for pillows and cushions. Withering says the flowers have 
the property of curdling milk. 
Carduus arvensis, Curt. Creeping-rooted Thistle. 
Native. First record: Gosselin, 1815. 
Generally distributed and common in cultivated and waste 
ground, and on roadsides. It is the Serratula arvensis of Gosselin. 
Var. setosus, Bess. Garden in Grange Road, 1897 (Lukis). 
Roadside near King’s Mills, nearly twenty plants in 1899 (Andrews). 
This variety is so different from the type that it might readily be 
taken for a distinct species. 
Carduus palustris, L. Marsh Thistle. 
Native. First record: Gosselin, 1815. 
Common in all parts of the island in wet meadows and marshy 
places in general. 
(Carduus eriophorus, L., the Woolly - headed Thistle, and 
C. acaulis, L., the Dwarf Thistle, are included in Gosselin’s list, 
but there is no confirmatory evidence of their occurrence in 
Guernsey. C. acaulis grows plentifully in Alderney, and, as several 
other Alderney plants are given in the old list, it seems probable 
that Gosselin intended it as a catalogue of the plants of the entire 
Bailiwick, so far as he knew them, and not of Guernsey alone). 
Silybum Marianum, Gaert. Milk Thistle. 
Casual. First found: Miss Dawber, 1893. 
Very rare. Several plants were noticed in waste ground in a 
garden at Ruettes Brayes by Miss Dawber in 1892 ; and in the 
same year I found a single plant in a cultivated field near Wood- 
lands. In 1890 Mr. Andrews found a specimen in a quarry near 
Le Jardin (vui1.). 
This handsome plant is also known under the name of Lady’s 
Thistle, or more properly Our Lady’s Thistle, from its being dedi- 
cated to the Virgin Mary: and an ancient legend accounts in a 
