THE CARLINE THISTLE 125 



THE CARLINE THISTLE. 



The Carline Thistle (Car Una acaulis, Linn., 

 natural order Composite, the Daisy family) is quite 

 unmistakable from its habit of flowering flat on the 

 surface of the ground, in many an Alpine pasture 

 and mountain-side (Plate XXIX., Fig. 2). A real 

 stem is present, despite the specific name : only, it 

 is very short, and buried as much as possible in the 

 soil. This type of habit, known to botanists as the 

 geophilous habit, is characteristic of Alpine plants 

 as a whole. Usually the underground development 

 of an Alpine plant greatly exceeds that above 

 ground. Not only is the root system in many Alpines 

 extremely well developed, but the underground stem, 

 comparatively safe from the attacks of the winter's 

 frost, is often a large structure modified to serve as 

 a storehouse for reserve food laid by to enable the 

 plant to begin work again in the spring at the earliest 

 possible moment. 



From the short underground stem of the stemless 

 thistle a large number of spiny leaves radiate, all 

 of them being closely pressed to the soil. In their 

 centre a single, large, pale yellow thistle-head, 2 to 3 

 inches in diameter, occurs, which in its turn is closely 

 pressed to the leaves. The flower-heads are ripe in 

 August, and usually persist throughout the following 

 winter. They are very interesting, from the fact 

 that they act like weather-glasses. The flower- 

 leaves (bracts) of the head, arch upwards and form 



