C0MP0srT;F. 153 



According to Theophrastus, the name of this geuus of plants comes from irwoc 

 {soos), safe, and exeiv (echein), to have, from its yielding a salubrious juice ; V)nt to 

 which species this applies is not clear. 



SPECIES I.— S ONCHUS OLERACEUS. Linv. 



Plate DCCCX. 



Billot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 1911. 



Jieich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XIX. Tab. MCCCCX. Fig. 1. 



S. oleraceus, a & /3 Isevis, Linn. Sp. Plant, p. 1117. 



Annual, with radical leaves. Stem branched. Leaves smooth, 

 runcinate-pinnatifid or obovate, nearly flat, dentate, amplexicaul 

 with spreading acute auricles. Anthodes in an irregular umbel. 

 Phyllaries glabrous. Achenes compressed, longitudinally ribbed, 

 and transversely rugose. 



Cultivated ground, roadsides, and waste places. Very common, 

 and generally distributed. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Annual. Summer 

 and Autumn. 



Stem 1 to 3 feet high. Leaves usually runcinate- and lyrate- 

 pinnatifid, but varying much in the depth of their divisions, 

 dentate but scarcely spinous at the margins ; auricles of the leaves 

 in the middle of the stem acute and sp^-eading, the uppermost 

 ones often blunt and adpressed. Anthodes f to 1 inch across, 

 pale-yellow, in a sub-umbellate corymb. Pericline oblong before 

 flowering, ovate-conical, abruptly acuminated from near the middle 

 when in fruit. Achenes light-brown, distinctly transversely rugose. 

 Leaves rather shining, bright-green, very slightly glaucous above, 

 more so beneath. Plant glabrous or nearly so, rarely with jointed 

 glandular hairs on the under side of the leaves and peduncles ; 

 pedicels often cottony ; phyllaries rarely with a few glandular hairs. 



Smooth Sow-thistle. 



French, Laitron des Lieux cuUives. German, Kohlartige Saudistel. 



The Sow-thistle is a well-known weed in every field and garden. Its hollow 

 thick stems are full of a milky juice, which renders it a very acceptable food to 

 most animals — pigs, sheep, and rabbits are particularly fond of it. It has also been 

 used as an article of diet by men from a very early date. It is recorded by Pliny that 

 Hecate regaled Theseus, before his encounter with the bull of Marathon, upon a dish 

 of Sow-thistles. The ancients considered them very wholesome and strengthening, 

 and administered the juice medicinally for many disorders, which practice was 

 continued to later times by our English herbalists. As an esculent, the Sow-thistle 

 has never been much in favour here ; but as a jiotherb it is sometimes used by the 

 peasantry in some districts. In Germany the leaves are put into salads, and we can 



VOL. V. X 



