THE SPEAE-PLUME 

 THISTLE. 



Cnicus lanceolatus. Nat. Ord., Composite. 



E have already figured one species 

 of our numerous indigenous 

 thistles, the nodding or musk 

 thistle, and in our present 

 illustration represent another, 

 which is perhaps equally 

 striking in form, and is of 

 even more common occur- 

 rence, for there are few hedge- 

 rows and wayside wastes in 

 which it may not be en- 

 countered in more or less 

 abundance. The musk thistle 

 is exceedingly common in its 

 special localities, and so, too, 

 is the spear-plume in its 

 favourite places of growth ; 

 but as the former is a lover 

 of the bleak moorland or open down, while the other is 

 in almost every hedgeside, the profusion of the latter, 

 though perhaps not actually greater, is at least more 

 immediately noticeable by the ordinary observer. 



The spear-plume thistle is the Cnicus lanceolatus of 

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