LASS XIX, ORDER I. ] CIRCIUM. 1055 
Leaves not very numerous, lanceolate, green, and slightly downy above, 
loosely cottony beneath, toothed, waved, or sinuated in an unequal 
manner, and ciliated with unequal sharp spines, the upper ones 
sessile, and embracing the stem, the lower ones petiolated. J Jower 
smaller than the last species, a fine purple, solitary. Involuere ovate, 
smooth, or loosely webbed over, the outer scales ovate, tapering into 
& spinous point, the inner ones longer, narrower, and scarcely spinons, 
coloured. florets longer, tubular, the limb cut into narrow linear 
segments. Fruit ovate. Pappus white, silky, feathery. 
Habitat.—Low wet pastures, especially among trees; rare in Scot- 
land; Isla and Arran. 
Perennial ; flowering in June and July. 
The two last are very elegant plants, from their round slender 
white woolly naked peduncles bearing a terminal rich purple flower, 
and the beautiful leaves bright shining green above, and white be- 
neath. They are plants well suited for ornamental rock work in 
shady damp places. 
9. C. acau'le, All. (Fig. 1246.) Dwarf Plume-thisile. Leaves 
smooth, lanceolate, sinuato-pinnatifid, ciliated with spines; stemless ; 
involucre oblong, smooth, its scales ovate lanceolate, the outer ones 
with a spinous point. 
De Cand. Prod. 6. p. 652.—Carduus acaulis, Linn.—English Botany, 
t. 161.—Chnicus acaulis, Willd.—English Flora, vol. iii. p. 395.— 
Hooker, British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 299'—Lindley, Synopsis, p. 
153. 
fioot stout, woody, tapering, long. Leaves numerous, oblong, 
lanceolate, deeply and unequally lobed and sinuated in a pinnatifid 
manner, toothed and ciliated. with slender spines, a shining green 
above, pale beneath, covered over with a loose cobweb-like down, all 
petiolated, spreading close to the ground, and from the midst of these 
arises a solitary head, sessile, or on a short stalk, thickly clothed with 
leaves, the involucre oblong, cylindrical, smooth, the scales green, 
outer ones ovate lanceolate, fringed on the margin, the mid-rib ter- 
minating in a short slender spine, the upper scales lanceolate, linear, 
smooth, acutely pointed. Flower purple. Florets long, tubular, the 
limb cut into narrow linear segments. #rwit ovate, smooth, pale 
brown, compressed. Pappus long, silky, feathery. 
Habitat—Pastures and meadows in a dry gravelly or chalky soil; 
not unfrequent; rare in Scotland. 
Perennial; flowering in June and July. 
The numerous long leaves of this plant spreading close to the 
ground smother all other plants beneath it, and in some pastures 
where it grows abundantly it is extremely injurious. When the 
