MILK THISTLE (Sttybum Maridnum, Gsertn.). Flower 

 heads 1 to 2 inches across, with tubular rose-purple florets; 

 solitary at the branch ends. Leaves prickly, deeply lobed 

 and wavy margined, the shiny green surface conspicuously 

 blotched with white along the veins. Stout annuals or bien- 

 nials, 3 ^o 6 feet high, along roadsides and in fields, Central 

 and Souifferh California, flowering in summer. 



An immigrant from the Mediterranean region, the beautiful 

 Milk Thistle has abused its freedom in our Land of Liberty, 

 and in some places has become a persistent interloper and a 

 nuisance in cultivated grounds. There is an Old World tradi- 

 tion that the white markings upon the leaves are due to drops 

 of milk that fell from the Virgin's breast as she nursed the 

 infant Christ. For this reason the plant has also been called 

 Our Lady's Thistle and Blessed Thistle. In old European gar- 

 dens it used to be grown both for ornament and for its edi- 

 bleness. The roots were boiled for pot herbs, the heads 

 treated as the artichoke, and the young leaves made into 

 spring salads. 



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