545 



(Star thistle ; purple star thistle.) Indige- 

 nous from Middle Europe to Western Ashi and Northern Africa. A 

 slender stemmed annual, with straggling branches, reaching occasionally 



Carduus pycnoccphalus ("Winged thistle ;" "Slender thistle.") 



a height of three feet ; stem smooth ; leaves small, pinnately lobed, the 

 upper undivided slightly hastate ; flower-heads purplish-blue, either 

 terminal or laterally sessile to stem, armed with formidable spines. 



