500 



mation I am compelled in a great degree to rely on others for obtain- 

 ing as regards the mainland, though for the island I trust they will be 

 found pretty completely worked out by personal research. The spe- 

 cific name of the plant now under consideration has no doubt been 

 given it from the strong resemblance of the first year's root-leaves to 

 those of Acanthus. Ours is usually the var. (3. crispus, and appa- 

 rently biennial. 



Carduus tenuiflorus. On hedge and ditch-banks, in dry waste 

 places, and on the high chalk Downs abundantly in various parts of 

 the Isle of Wight. Profusely below the rocks near Mirables, at 

 Blackgang, &c. On the chalky Downs in W. Medina in plenty ; 

 Mr. W. D. Snooke !!! Everywhere about Freshwater; Mr. Dawson 

 Turaer in Fl. Yect. !!! This species delights to grow along the 

 earthen fence-banks which stretch across the summits of our highest 

 Downs, and which it sometimes covers in dense patches for many 

 yards together. Between Stubbington and Hill Head ; Mr. W. L. 

 Notcutt. Seldom found far inland, but probably not rare along the 

 Hampshire coast. Filaments densely hairy below the anthers. 



lanceolatus. A common and troublesome species every- 

 where in pastures, waste places, woods, by road-sides, on ditch- 

 banks, &c. Mr. Gardiner (' Flora of Forfarshire ') holds this to be 

 the true national badge of Scotland, and to none of our thistles is the 

 motto Nemo me impune lacessit more applicable than to this, from 

 the extreme pungency of its long, slender, but formidably acute 

 spines. 



eriophorus. In dry hilly pastures on chalk or limestone, 



but very local. Between Luccombe and Bonchurch ; Mr. J. Woods 

 in Bot. Guide: and where, on the rough broken ground across which 

 the foot-way from Shanklin passes, it still grows in some plenty ; as 

 also towards the Bonchurch extremity of East End (Luccombe Land- 

 slip) in several places rather abundantly. About Ventnor and Bon- 

 church here and there. In considerable plenty on chalky slopes 

 betwixt the woods at the head of the valley between Apes Down and 

 Rowledge, 1843 and 1845. Fields near Buccombe Down on the east 

 side, nearly above Idlecombe, in some quantity, July, 1845. Bere 

 Forest and elsewhere in the county; Rev. Messrs. Gamier and 

 Poulter in Hamp. Repos. Near Overton, Popham Lane and Basing- 

 stoke ; Mr. E. Forster, Jun. in Bot. Guide. The most beautiful and 

 conspicuous of British, if not of European thistles ; the globose in- 

 volucres often the size of the largest orange, interlaced with a web 

 rivalling the gossamer in delicacy, present a singularly elegant 



