Sm. FI. Brit. v. ii. p. 847. — With. (7th edit.) v. iii. p. 910. — Lightf. FI. Scot. v. i. 
p. 450. — Sibth. FI. Oxon. p. 244. — Abbot’s FI. Bedf. p. 175. — Thomp. PI. of Berw. 
p. 81. — Davies’ Welsh Bot. p. 75. — Purt. Midi. FI. v. ii. p. 378. — Relh. FI. Cant. 
(3rd edit.) p. 328. — Irv. Lond. FI. p. 148. — Bab. Prim. FI. Sara. p. 55. — Leigh. FI. 
Shropsh. p. 401. — Carduus lanceatus, Ray’s Syn. p. 195. — Johnson’s Uerarde, 
p. 1174. — Carduus lanceatus latifolius, Bauh. Pin. p. 385. — Cirsium lancea- 
latum, Gray’s Nat. Arr, v. ii. p. 438. — Macr. Man. Brit. Bot. p. 138. 
Localities. — In waste ground, pastures, and on banks by road-sides. 
Biennial. — Flowers from June to September. 
Root branching, fibrous. Stem 3 or 4 feet high, upright, stout, 
solid, branched, angular, furrowed, leafy, hairy or downy, many- 
flowered, with strong, spiny wings. Leaves alternate, sessile and 
decurrent at the base, long, spear-shaped, spreading; hairy and 
deep green above, downy and somewhat glaucous underneath ; 
deeply pinnatifid, their lobes spreading alternately, somewhat 
palmate, armed with stout yellowish spines. Flowers large, purple, 
generally solitary at the summits of the stem and branches. Invo- 
lucrum egg-shaped, its scales spear-shaped, dark green, smooth, 
strongly keeled, terminating in a rigid, narrow, spreading spine ; 
margins fringed about the middle with cottony down, which gives 
the involucrum a cobweb-like appearance (see fig. 2.) ; points of 
the inner scales upright and more appressed. Florets (see fig. 3.) 
tubular, tube twice the length of the limb, white, very slender ; 
limb purple, dilated, deeply cut into 5, strap-shaped, concave seg- 
ments, which are thickened and blunt at the apex. Filaments free, 
pubescent ; anthers bristly at the base. Seed inversely egg-shaped, 
purplish, smooth and polished, obsoletely 4-angled, crowned with 
a raised margin and conical obtuse appendage. Pappus (see figs. 
5 and 6.) sessile, feathery. Receptacle with long hairs. 
Dr. Withering observes, that “ few plants are more disregarded 
than this, and yet its use is very considerable. If a heap of clay 
be thrown up, nothing would grow upon it for several years, did 
not the seeds of this plant, wafted by the wind, fix and vegetate 
thereon. Under the shelter of this, other vegetables appear, and the 
whole soon becomes fertile. The flowers, like those of the Arti- 
choke, have the property of curdling milk. Sheep and swine re- 
fuse this plant ; and neither horses, cows, nor goats, are fond of 
it.” — The Papilio Cardui , and the Thistle Ermine Moth, are said 
to feed upon it. The seeds are the favourite food of many small 
birds, 
It is a large and succulent plant, and is often too well known on strong lands. 
Professor Martyn tells us, that he has seen the air perfectly filled with the seed- 
down of the Spear -thistle, for miles together, on a windy day, flying along, till it 
was intercepted by a hedge, bank, or rising ground. Where it is seen in such 
abundance, the greater part of it is generally down without seed ; but for this the 
farmer is obliged to the goldfinch and other small birds ; they, however, usually 
leave enough to stock his grounds with this cumbrous and unwelcome weed, but as 
it is only biennial, it is readily destroyed by mowing it down before its flowers 
form seed. 
For some account of the beautiful contrivance of Nature for disseminating the 
seeds of this tribe of plants, see the second page of fols, 163 & 177 of this work. 
