178 SUB-ALPINE PLANTS 



Cirsium oleraceum Scop. 



An erect, light green glabrous thistle, from 2 to 3 feet high. 

 Stems sometimes slightly branched, and leafy at the top. Leaves 

 soft, embracing the stem with rounded lobes, pinnatifid, more or 

 less lyrate, with large segments edged with cilia, not spiny ; the 

 upper leaves undivided. Involucral leaves linear-lanceolate, 

 ending in a short, soft spine. Flower-heads large, few, of a dirty 

 green, close together and with yellowish floral leaves extending 

 beyond them. 



Damp meadows and river-sides from the plains to about 4000 

 feet ; common. June to August. 



Disirihution. — Central and Southern Europe, extending as far 

 north as Paris and Normandy. 



Cirsium spina si ssimum Scop. 



This very spiny species, with conspicuous greenish white in- 

 volucral bracts, densely leaf^ stem, and dull yellow flowers, 

 sometimes descends to the sub-Alps, but it more frequently is 

 truly Alpine (up to 9000 feet in Dauphiny), and frequently large 

 areas of damp mountain-sides are covered with it, as, e.g. by the 

 Lognan Inn, above Argenti^re. It was figured and described in 

 Alpine Plants of Europe, p. 164. Flowers, July to September. 



Distribution. — Eastern, Central, and Western Alps, Jura. 

 Cirsium heterophyllum Hill. 



Not prickly. Stems 2-3 feet high, with a little cottony wool, 

 and furrowed. Leaves clasping the stem, lanceolate, green and 

 glabrous above, white and cottony beneath, edged with small 

 bristly teeth ; root-leaves sometimes lobed. Flower-heads single 

 on long, rather stout peduncles. Involucral bracts glabrous, 

 lanceolate, often purplish. 



Mountain pastures in the sub-Alps. June to August. Rather 

 local. 



Distribution. — Mountains of Central Europe and Asia, and hills 

 of Northern Europe, including Britain. 



Carduus L. Thistle. 



Differs from Cirsium in the threads of the pappus being glabrous 

 and never plumose or feathery. 



Carduus personatus Jacq. 



Stem 2-3 feet high, erect, branched at the top, cottony, winged 

 and spiny. Leaves soft, whitish beneath, toothed, with spiny 

 cilia, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, decurrent ; stem-leaves 

 lyrate pinnatifid. Flower-heads sessile in a small, close bunch. 

 Involucre globular, glabrous, the bracts being pointed and mucro- 

 nate. Flowers purple. 



