COMPOSITli; FAMILY 279 



solitary, egy-shapcd, handsome ; bracts dowjiy; florets red-purple. 

 — Moist mountain pastures. — Fl. July— September, rerennial. 



10. C. acaulis (Ground Thistle). — A low plant, stemless, or 

 nearly so, and so readily distinguished from all other British 

 species; nuhc all eaves li'mncitifid, spinous, glabrous; Atrat? solitary, 

 almost sessiie ,• florets crimson. — Dry gravelly or chalky pastures ; 

 not general, but abundant in many southern districts. — Fl. July 

 - September. Perennial. 



11. C. arveiisis (Creeping Plume-Thistle).-- A handsome weed, 

 2 — 4 feet high, with a creeping rliizoii'ie; stem erect, leafy, 

 angular, not winged ; leaves sessile, pirmatifid, wavy, very 

 spinous ; heads numerous, stalked, corymbose ; bracts broad, 

 adpressed, spmous-pointed ; florets dingy light purple, musk 

 scented, dicccious, the staminate ones in sub-globose, and the 

 carpellate ones in egg-shaped heads, the two forms of the plant 

 growing in separate patches. — Fields ; very common. — Fl. July — 

 September. Perennial. 



Besides these species there are several hybrids between them. 



30. Onopurdum (Cotton-Thistle). -Diftering from Cardials 

 niainl)' in its honeycombed receptacle and 4-angk-d fruit. (Name 

 of Greek origin.) 



I. 0. Aaiiilhiiiiii (Scottish thistle). — A stout, hoary, or woolly 

 plant, 4 — 5 feet high ; stem erect, branched, with a broad 

 spinous "Wing to its summit ; haves wavy, pinnatifid, decurrent, 

 woolly on both surfaces : heads many, largfe, globose, cobwebby ; 

 bracts green, recurved, fringed with minute spines ; florets pale 

 purple. — Dry waste places, especiallv in the: south. Cultivated as 

 the national emblem in Scotland. — Fl. July — September. 

 Biennial. 



31. SiLVBUM (Milk-Thistle). — Represented by the species 5. 

 Maridmtm, is not an indigenous genus. It was called by the 

 early botanists Cdrduiis jMariie, or " C)ur Lady's Thistle," and is 

 a stout, glossily glabrous plant, 2 — 4 feet high, with white veins to 

 its large leaves ; large globose lieads of rose-coloured florets ; 

 united filaments, and a pappus of many rows of silky white hairs. 

 ^^"aste places. — Fl. June, July. Biennial. 



32. Saussl'-rea. — Herbs, not spinous, -svith heads of bluish- 

 purple, perfect, tubular florets, in corymbs ; bracts imbricate, in 

 many rows, not spinous : receptacle flat, 'scaly ; anthers tailed ; 

 pappus in 2 rows, the outer bristly, the inner longer, feathery. 

 (Named in honour of the two de Saussures, Swiss naturalists.) 



I.. 5. alpina (Alpine Saussurea). — The only British species, 



