COMPOSITE FAMILY. 187 



C. Virgini&num, Virginia T. Chiefly S. & W. on plains and barrens, 

 with rather simple stems 1° - 3° high, ending in a long naked peduncle ; leaves 

 lanceolate and slightly or not at all pinnatifid ; head small, y. 



C. discolor. Two-colored T. Low grounds, 3° - 6° high, branching 

 and leafy, with i-ather small heads, and deeply pinnatifid leaves green above 

 white beneath, their lobes narrow and prickly pointed. @ 



3. SILTBUM, MILK THISTLE. (An ancient Greek name.) 



S. Mari^num, the only species, cult .in some gardens and rarely running 

 wild, from the Old World, well marked by its white-blotched or veined smooth 

 leaves with clasping base and merely sinuate prickly margins ; flowers purple, 

 in late summer. ® @ 



4. ONOPORDON, COTTON or SCOTCH THISTLE. (The ancient 

 Greek name. ) 



O. Ac^Utbium. Nat. from En. in waste places : tall, white-cottony, with 

 weak prickles on the sinuate-pinnatifid leaves and the broad leaf-like wings of 

 the stem and branches ; flowers p'urple, late summer. ® 



5. LAPPA, BURDOCK. (Name from a Greek word meaning to lay hold 

 of, from the burs or hook-awned he"ads.) 



L. ofQ.cln^iS, var. major, the Common B., with large leaves loosely 

 cottony beneath, or somewhat naked, the lower heart-shaped, upper ovate, is 

 common in manured soil and barnyards. Var. mInoe is smaller and smoother, 

 with leaves tapering at the base, often cut-toothed or cleft. Fl. mostly purple, 

 all summer and autumn. (!) @ 



6. CARTHAMUS, SAFFLOWER, FALSE SAFFRON. (Arabic 

 name of the plant, from the properties of the orange-colored flowers, which 

 are used in dying or coloring yellow, as a substitute for true Saffron.) 



C. tinctbrius, the only common species, cult, in country gardens, from the 

 Orient ; smooth, 6' - 12' high, with ovate-oblong leaves and large htad, in 

 summer. ®- 



7. CNICUS, BLESSED THISTLE. (Greek name of a kind of Thistle.) 

 C. benedictus, the only species, scarce in waste places S., from Eu. ; has 



much branched loosely woolly stems, leafy up to the rather small heads of yel- 

 lowish flowers, and pale pinnatifid leaves with slightly prickly edges. 



8. CENTATTREA, CENTAUREA or STAR-THISTLE. (Ancient 

 name, after Chiron the Centaur.) Fl. summer. 



§ 1. Flowers all alike in the head, the marf/inal ones not enlarged and ray-like: 

 pappus of very short bristles : scales of head with durkfringed appendage. 



C. nigra. Black C. or Knapweed. A coarse weed, in fields and waste 

 places E., nat. from Eu. ; stem 2° high ; leaves roughish, lance-oblong, the 

 lower, with some coarse teeth ; flowers purple, y. 



§ 2. Marginal flowers mare or less enlarged, fanning a kind of false ray, and 

 sterile : pappus of bristles : scales if head with fringed appendage. 



C. Ciner^ia, or CANDiofssiMA, a low species, cult, from S. Eu. with 

 very white-woolly twice pinnatifid leaves, and purple flowers, the outermost 

 little enlarged : not hai-dy N. ^ 



C. Americ&na. Cult, from Arkansas and Texas : smooth, with stout 

 stem l°-2° high, oblong or lance-oblong leaves, the upper entire, very large 

 head of showy pale purple flowers, the outer ones much enlarged, and the scales 

 with large scarious-fringed appendage. ® 



C. C Janus, Bluebottle or Cornflower. In gardens, from Eu., spar- 

 ingly running wild ; loosely cottony, with stfem-leaves linear and mostly entire, 



