COMPOSITE. 



465 



G. Marsh Thistle. Carduus palustris, Linn. (Fig. 555.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 974. Cnicus, Brit. Fl.) 



A stiff annual or biennial, 4 or 5 feet 

 high, and scarcely branched ; the stems 

 quite covered with the prickly de current 

 margins of the leaves as in the welted T. 

 Leaves narrow, the lower ones 6 to 8 

 inches long, pinnatifid with numerous 

 ovate, wavy, prickly lobes, with a few 

 rough hairs scattered on both surfaces ; 

 the upper leaves small and very narrow. 

 Flower-heads rather numerous, small 

 and ovoid, usually collected in clusters, 

 forming an irregular terminal corymb. 

 Involucral bracts numerous, with very 

 small somewhat prickly points, the inner 

 ones often coloured. Florets purple. 

 Hairs of the pappus feathery. 



In wet fields, and meadows, through- 

 out Europe and Russian Asia, pene- 

 trating into the Arctic regions. Frequent in Britain 



Fig. 555. 



FL summer. 



7. Creeping Thistle. Carduus arvensis, Curt. (Fig. 556.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 975, male individual. Cnicus, Brit. Fl.) 



Hootstock perennial and creeping, 

 with erect annual stems 3 or 4 feet high. 

 Leaves narrow, pinnatifid, and very 

 prickly, either embracing the stem with 

 prickly auricles or shortly decurrent. 

 Flower-heads not large, forming rather 

 loose terminal corymbs, and always 

 dioecious ; the males nearly globular, 

 with very projecting purple florets ; the 

 females with much longer involucres 

 but shorter florets, the copious feathery 

 pappus of the achenes projecting con- 

 siderably as the fruit ripens : in both, 

 the involucral bracts are numerous, ap- 

 pressed, with very small prickly points. 



In cultivated and waste places, the 

 commonest of European and Asiatic 

 Thistles, accompanying cultivation to all 



