274 COMPOSITE. [Silybum. 



spinous decurrent woolly on both sides. Br. Fl. p. 224. E. B. 

 t. 977. 



In di-y wasle places, by roadsides, on hedgebanks, rubbish and about houses ; 

 an extremely rare, if not now extinct, plant in this island, where it was peihaps 

 not indigenous. Fl. July — September. $ . 



E. Med. — On Ryde Dover, sparingly, prior to 1842 ; since then completely 

 extirpated by building. 



W. Med.— A solitary plant in the middle of a clover-lay at Thorley, Sept. 1842, 

 most likely brought there with the seed. 



Stems 5 or 6 feet high (or in gardens, where both it and 0. illyricum are cul- 

 tivated, still taller), broadly winged with the decurrent edges of the very spinous 

 leaves, which are downy on both sides, but most so beneath. Flowers large, soli- 

 tary at the end of the branches. Involucre globose, of numerous lanceolate very 

 pungent scales, green with yellowish tips, the upper ones nearly erect, the middle 

 ones patent, lowermost retlexed, all connected by a cottony web. Florets purple, 

 with very long and slender tubes, segments of the limb very deep and narrow. 

 Receptacle fleshy, with very deep foveae, the margins of which are membranous, 

 jagged and prominent. Achenia obtusely 4- or 5-angled, their faces perfectly 

 smooth and shining, without points or striae. Pappus scarcely half the length of 

 the florets, jointed, compressed, rough with bristly hairs pointing forwards. 



A most formidably armed and gigantic thistle, said to be the true Scotch This- 

 tle, though that honour is bestowed by others upon the scarcely less redoubtalile, 

 but more elegant Silybum Marianum. 



*** " Pappus in many rows. Filaments monadelphous." — Bab. Man. 



XXIV. Silybum, Oartner. Silybum. 



" Involucre imbricated ; scales leaf-like at tbe base, narrowed 

 into a long spreading spinous point. Receptacle scaly. Fruit 

 compressed, its terminal areola- surrounded by a papillose ring. 

 Pappus pilose, united into a ring at the base, deciduous." — Bab. 



1. S. viarianum, Gsertn. Milk Thistle. " Leaves sessile am- 

 plexicaul waved spinous the radical ones pinnatifid, scales of the 

 involucre subfoliaceous recurved spinous at the margin." — E. B. 

 t. 976. Carduus, Sm. Br. Fl. p. 221. 



On dry hedge- and ditch-banks, by roadsides, amongst rubbish, and in waste 

 ground at the outskirts of towns ; more truly wild in woods, thickets and on onr 

 elevated downs ; here and there abundant, though not very general. Fl. May 

 —July. Jr. July. ©. 



E. Med. — Truly wild in several places along the Undercliff. Very luxuriant in 

 the wooded dell between Ventnor and Bonchurch, not far from the pulpit-rock. 

 Under the CUB'S above the road near Mirables. Boadside near the Sandrock Dis- 

 pensatory. At the edge of the downs at the summit of the clifl' above Wolver- 

 stone, near St. Lawrence, in considerable plenty. Rough ground at Niton. A 

 single specimen observed at Bembridge in 1841. On the Dover, Ryde, a few 

 plants occasionally ; also in John street ; now, I believe, extinct in the latter 

 place. 



Receptacle spongy, densely tufted with very long, white, setaceous, ribbed paleas. 

 Achenia mottled gray and brown, elliptical-oblong, compressed, glabrous, crowned 

 with n yellow oblique border and a short truncate point, and having an obscure 

 ridge or angle marked by a pale line down the centre of each face. Pappv.s deci- 

 duous, oblique, several times the length of the seed, white, rough and finely stri- 

 ated. 



