THE FIELD THISTLE. 



Carduus aeanthoides. Nat. Or ' 

 Composite. 



ROBABLY most of our readers 

 flatter themselves that they know 

 a thistle when they see it ; but it 

 is our duty to break in on so 

 complacent a feeling, with the 

 assurance that the word thistle 

 stands for a numerous body of 

 plants. We have already figured 

 the musk thistle or nodding 

 thistle (C. nutaiis), and the spear- 

 plume thistle (C. lanceolatus), 

 and in addition to the present 

 species (C. acanthoides] we pro- 

 pose to figure two other common 

 kinds. 



The field thistle may be looked 

 for by waysides and on waste 

 lands. It also springs up in the 

 farmer's fields ; but it possesses one comparatively good 

 feature, troublesome as it is, for, unlike the other species 

 of thistle, it is an annual, and so far more readily 

 eradicated. Like the other thistles, it sends its seeds 

 ilying far and wide on the breeze, and there can 

 scarcely be a moi-e hopeless sight for a careful farmer 



