4 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



Boineliraes boiled and eaten as artichokes. The cotton is occasionally collected from 

 the stem, and we have heard of pillows being stuffed with it. Gerarde tells us that 

 Dioscorides saith — ''That the leaves and roots hereof are a remedy for those that 

 have their bi)dios drawn backwards ; thereby Galen supjjoseth that these are of tem- 

 perature hot." 



GENUS II.—S I L Y B U M. raiU. 



Pericline of imljricatcd pliyllarics, the exterior and middle ones 

 dilated into a spinous-dentate foliaceous appendage, longly acumi- 

 nated into a stout spine, interior ones entire without an appendage. 

 Plorets all equal, perfect. Filaments cohering so as to form a 

 tube, papillose ; anthers with a very short acuminated point. 

 Achenes obovate-ovoid, laterally compressed, without raised lines ; 

 epigynous disk surrounded by a horny entire border. Pappus 

 caducous, consisting of denticulate hairs arranged in several rows, 

 and united into a ring at the base ; the ring furnislied at the upper 

 border with a crown of minute smooth connivent hairs. Clinanth 

 fleshy, not pitted, hairy. 



Large biennial herbs with branched stems. Leaves amplexicaul, 

 sinuate-spinous or spinous-dentate, generally glabrous, usually 

 variegated with white. Pericline large, sub -globose. Flowers 

 purplish-rose, varying to white. 



The name of this genus comes from aiXvftoc (silubos), a thistle-kind of plant 

 which bore eatable sprouts, 



SPECIES I.— SILYBUM MARIANUM. Gaertn. 



Plate DCLXXXl. 



Jieich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XV. Tab. DCCCLXXXII. 



Carduus Marianus, Lhm. Hook. &, Am. Brit. Fl. p. 230. BetUh. Handbook Er:t Bot. 

 p. 313. Sm. Eng. Bot. No. 976. 



Stem erect, branched. Leaves amplexicaul, with blunt hall- 

 kidneyshaped auricles, sinuated, spinous, glabrous on both sides, 

 variegated Avith white above. Phyllaries concave, lanceolate, with 

 recurved foliaceous spinous-pointed appendages with spinous 

 margins ; inner phyllaries entire, rough. 



In waste ground and by old buildings, but probably not truly 

 native. Not uncommon in England ; rare in Scotland, where 

 it occurs about Berwick, Dumbarton, Edinburgh, in Aberdeenshire 

 and Forfarshire. 



England, [Scotland], Ireland. Biennial. Late Summer 

 and Autiuuu. 



