FAMILY HERBAL. 337 



crs are yellow ; they stand in a kind of green leafy 

 heads : the little leaves composing these heads 

 are prickly ; and each of the cups cS the flowers 

 ends in a long brown spine, dented on both sides. 



It is bitter and stomachic. An infusion of it 

 taken in large quantities, will excite vomiting : 

 in smaller draughts, it is good to create an appe< 

 tile, and prevents sicknesses and Teachings. The 

 leaves, dried and powdered, are good against worm9. 

 Jt was at one time suppossed to possess very great 

 virtues against fevers of all kinds : but that is 

 now disregarded. 



Milk Thistle. Carduus ?nariai 



A very beautiful plant, common by road- 

 sides, but wanting only to have been a native of 

 Greece, or the Indies, to be esteemed one of the 

 most elegant vegetables in the world. The leaves 

 rising from the root are two feet long, and more 

 than a foot broad, of a beautiful deep green, varie- 

 gated ail over with irregular lines of a milk white, 

 dentated deeply at the edges, and prickly. They 

 spread themselves into a round of more than a yard 

 diameter, and when they grow out of the way of* 

 dust, make a most charming appearance. A single 

 stalk rises in the midst of these. It is five feet 

 high, round, thick, very firm, upright, and divided 

 at the top into a few branches. The leaves on it 

 are like those from the root, and variegated with 

 white in the same manner. At the tops stand the 

 (lowers, which are of the nature of those of other 

 thistles, but twice as big, and vastly more beau- 

 tiful. The flowery part is of a deep and fine pur- 

 ple ; the head itself is composed of beautiful scales 

 arranged with great regularity, and each termi- 



x % 



