446 SYNGENESIA : POLYGAMIA ^QLTALIS. 



underneath, and (Ightly dented on the edges : 

 the ftalk is two or three feet high and branched : 

 the flowers are purple and grow in fphserical heads, 

 forming a kind of clufler'd umbel : the calyces 

 are fometimes fmooth, and fometimes interwoven 

 with a \^ooly or cobweb kind of matter: the 

 fcales are hooked at the end, and readily adhere 

 to any thing they touch : the florets are all tu- 

 bular, hermaphrodite, and have five dents in the 

 rim : the receptacle upon which the florets are 

 difpos'd is cover'd with briftly 'palea : the feeds 

 are crown'd with afhort brittle down, which thro* 

 a microfcope appears to be plumofe. 

 This plant, tho' generally negle6led, is capable of 

 being apply'd to many ufes,— -the root and (lalks 

 are efculent and nutritive : the fl:alks for this pur- 

 pofe fhould be cut before the plant flowers, the 

 rind peel'd off, and then boil'd and ferv'd up in 

 the manner of cardoonSy or eaten raw as a fallad 

 with oil and vinegar. 

 It is likewife us'd in medicine : the great Boerhave 

 recommends a decodion of it in pleurifies, perip- 

 neumonies, and malignant fevers. In the fame 

 manner it is faid to have cur'd the venereal dif- 

 eafc. An elixir of it has been alfo much ex- 

 toU'd for the gout •, and an emulfion of the feeds 

 has a powerful diuretic quality. Outwardl) ap- 

 ply'd the leaves have been found ferviceable in 

 headachs, the gout, and oedematous fwellings. 



Cattle refufe to eat it: but flieep propagate it by 



conveying 



