326 THE COMPOSITE FAMILT. 



2. IVIarsli SoTTthistle. Sonchus palustris, Linn. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 935.) 



This has the large flowers, glandular hairs, and general habit of the corn 

 S., but is a much taller plant ; the rootstock scarcely creeps, and the leaves 

 are narrow, often 8 or 10 inches long, clasping the stem with long pointed 

 auricles, and either ^undivided or with one or two pairs of long lanceolate 

 lobes. 



In marshes, and the edges of ponds and wet ditches. Said to have 

 nearly the geographical range of the corn S., but appears to be more confined 

 to eastern Europe, and nowhere common. In Britain, very rare, the only 

 certain localities being in the marshes of some of the eastern counties of 

 England. Fl. late summer, or cmiumn. 



3. Conunon So'virthistle. Sonclius oleraceus, Linn. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 843.) 



An annual, with a rather thick hoUow stem, 1 to 3 or even 4 feet high, 

 perfectly glabrous, except occasionally a very few stiff glandular hairs on the 

 peduncles. Leaves thin, pinnatifid, with a broad, heartshaped or triangular 

 terminal lobe, bordered with irregular, pointed or prickly teeth, and a few 

 smaller lobes or coarse teeth along the broad leafstalk ; the upper leaves 

 narrow and clasping the stem with short auricles. Flower-heads rather 

 small, in a short corymbose panicle, sometimes almost umbellate ; the in- 

 volucres remarkably conical after flowering. Florets of a pale yellow. 

 Achenes flattened, with longitudinal ribs often marked with transverse 

 wrinkles or asperities, the pappus of copious snow-wliite hairs. 



A weed of cultivation, so universally distributed over the globe, except 

 perhaps some tropical districts, that the limits of its native country cannot 

 now be fixed ; probably truly indigenous in Europe and central Asia. Very 

 abundant in Britain. Fl. the whole season. The prickly S. {S. aspera, 

 Eng. Bot. Suppl. t. 2765 and 2766) appears to be a marked variety, rather 

 than a species, in which the longitudinal ribs of tlie achenes have not the 

 transverse wrinkles. The leaves are usually darker in colovir and less di- 

 vided, but much more closely bordered with prickly teeth ; and the auricles 

 which clasp the stem are broader, rounded, and more prickly toothed : none 

 of these characters are, however, constant. It is almost always mixed with 

 the common S., and in many places as abundant. 



4. Alpine So'wthistle. Sonchus alpinns, Linn. 

 (S. ccBruleus, Eng. Bot. t. 2425. Mulgedium, Brit. Fl.) 



Stock perennial, with erect stems 2 to 3 feet high. Leaves much like 

 those of the common S., but with a much larger, broadly triangular, and 

 pointed terminal segment. Panicle oblong, almost narrowed into a raceme, 

 more or less hispid with glandular hairs. Involucres narrow, of but few 

 bracts, containing 12 to 20 deep-blue florets. Achenes oblong, but shghtly 

 flattened ; the hairs of the pappus of a dirty white, and rather stifier than in 

 the other species. 



In moist, rocky situations, in northern and Arctic Europe and Asia, 

 limited in central and southern Europe to mountain-ranges. In Britain, 

 only in the Lochnagar and Clova mountains and their vicinity, where it is 

 now becoming very rare. Fl. summer, rather late. The differences in the 

 pappus which have induced its separation as a genus, under the name 



