3 8 FLOWERS OF THE HILLS AND DRY PLACES 



nard. Gerarde says of the first: "In English it may be called the 

 cinnamon roote ... by reason of that sweete and aromaticall savour 

 which his roote conteinneth and yieldeth ". It was supposed when 

 hung up in a room to drive away gnats and fleas. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



154. Inula squarrosa, Bernh. Stem tall, downy, leaves dull-green, 

 ovate, lanceolate, downy, dentate, flowerheads yellow, terminal, in a 

 corymb, scales of the involucre reflexed, pappus red. 



Cotton Thistle (Onopordon Acanthium, L.) 



The present distribution of this plant is Europe and Siberia, and 

 it is merely an introduction in N. America. There is no evidence 

 as to its occurrence in early deposits. In Great Britain in the Penin- 

 sula province it is absent from S. Somerset, in the Channel province 

 from \V. Sussex; it occurs throughout the Thames and Anglia pro- 

 vinces; in the Severn province not in Gloucs; whilst in Wales it is 

 found in Carmarthen, Pembroke, Montgomery, Carnarvon, Denbigh, 

 and Flint, and it is found in the Trent province generally, except in 

 Derby, not in Mid Lanes in the Mersey province, in the H umber 

 province not in S.E. or SAV. Yorks, in the Isle of Man, in Lanark, 

 Roxburgh, Berwick, Hacklington, Edinburgh, Fife, Stirling, E. Ross. 

 Elsewhere it is probably not native, and is an alien or denizen. 



The Cotton Thistle, where it is a native, is a plant of dry places, 

 and elsewhere it is merely a casual found in waste places, in gardens, 

 and where it has been sown by man consciously or unconsciously, like 

 many other plants which now have a sort of temporary home with us 

 but whose native origin is under suspicion. 



While not a true thistle, the Cotton Thistle is even taller than the 

 Marsh Thistle, and with its fine heads of bloom and whitish foliage 

 and stems it is far more imposing, 



With spreading branches it thus forms quite a magnificent orna- 

 ment for gardens. The woody stems are freely continuously winged. 

 The leaves are egg-shaped, oblong, stalkless, wavy, decurrent, toothed, 

 covered both sides with woolly down, and very spinous. 



The flowerheads are numerous, terminal, purple, upright, in a 

 nearly round involucre, with spreading awl-like phyllaries or whorls of 

 bracts. The receptacle bears scales. The tubular florets are com- 

 plete. It is 4 to 10 ft. in height. The flowers bloom in July and 

 August. The plant is biennial, reproduced by seeds. 



The flowerhead is much like that of Carduus but does not bear 



