362 THE ALPINE FLORA 



7/. villosum (PL LXII) is markedly different. Covered 

 all over with long, woolly hairs ; leaves bluish, oblong, 

 undulate, capitules large, solitary, with bright yellow 

 flowers. June-September. Rocky places in the limestone 

 Alps and Jura. 



Rhaponticum, Cirsium, etc. 



Here and there, on steep and rocky alpine slopes, one 

 meets a plant of great size, like a Centaurea with stiff 

 stems. It reaches a height of more than 40 in.; the 

 leaves are entire, greyish; the flowers rosy-carmine, in a 

 very large head surrounded by an enormous, scarious 

 involucre. This is J^haponticum scariosum or Centaurea 

 J{haponticum, to be grown in deep and sunny garden 

 soil. 



Mention may also be made of certain Thistles, known 

 under the names of Cirsium or Carduus; they are 

 picturesque in growth and often beautiful. Cirsium 

 spinosissimum is the pale-green species, with very num- 

 erous, spinous leaves, and stems 1 0-20 in. high, terminated 

 by a dense cluster of pale-yellow heads surrounded by a 

 spinous, yellow-green involucre. C. Eriophorum is the 

 beautiful, majestic thistle with very large heads of dark 

 rose, the involucres with woolly webs; found on pastures 

 in the calcareous Alps and Jura. 



