559 



" There are no trees, and few shrubs, among the semi- 

 Jlosculosi\ no bulbs, scarcely a tuberous root, except in 

 some species of Hieracium. Their flowers are mostly 

 yellow ; sometimes red underneath, as in Leontodon, Hi- 

 eracium and Crepis ; " (very rarely pink, in Geropogon 

 and Crepis;) sometimes blue, in Cichorium and Cata- 

 nanche; never white." 



"Section 2. Capitati; all the florets tubular, assem- 

 bled into a head, in one common calyx." 



" All these are prickly or spinous, and vulgarly called 

 Cardui, Thistles. If however they were all considered 

 as one genus, such a genus would prove too ample ; 

 hence it is best to separate them into several, though the 

 task is very difficult. Centaurea belongs to them, though 

 necessarily referred, in the sexual system, to the order 

 Polygamia-frustranea. Its calyx, always tumid, and often 

 spinous, proves its affinity. The most extensive genera 

 of this section, Carduus, and Serratula, are the most 

 difficult to distinguish ; hence it is best to study the 

 rest, in the first place, that those puzzling ones may prove 

 easier." 



" Vaillant divided this capitate tribe by the spines of 

 their calyx, whether simple, spinous, or leafy. But the 

 gradation is so imperceptible, that no accurate principles 

 of discrimination are hence to be obtained. No plant of 

 this section is milky, or poisonous, or arboreous. Some 

 of the Serratula are shrubby ; many of the herbs are 

 destitute of stems, as in Carlina, Atractylis, Onopordum, 

 Carduus, and Centaurea." 



" Atractylis has a radiant flower, and the florets of the 

 radius have each both stamens and pistil, a solitary in- 

 stance among compound flowers, rendering the genus very 

 distinct. The elongated and coloured scales of the calyx 

 in Carlina have misled Tournefort to rank it among ra- 

 diant flowers." 



u . The capitati have a character peculiar to themselves, 

 in the dilatation, or inflation, of the tube of each floret, 



