MEDIC AGO. 
161 
ness and very large globular webbed bnr-like pods clothed with 
long thick-set interlacing hairy spines standing out straight on all 
sides like a chestnut-husk. Whole pi. smooth except the pods 
which are thickly hairy, and the 1. which though smooth above 
are minutely adpresso-puberulous beneath. St. prostrate 1-2 ft. 
long ; foliage dark dull gr. ; lfts. large, sometimes dark-spotted. 
FI. 2 or 3 together, mostly 2, larger than in M. lappacea, pale 
lemon-y. ( luteus v. citrinus ). Pods half an inch in diam. not 
truncate but rounded at each end, pale gr., light brown when 
ripe, hedgehog-like especially whilst young, with numerous close 
compact volutions, the margin thickened and beset on each side 
with a row of long subulate flexible interlacing hairy spines 
clothed with arachnoidal or interweaving hairs like those of 
the common Burdock (. Arctium minus Sclik.). 
Webb refers to this pi., but not as a Can. sp., in WB. ii. 63, 
at the end of his account of M. intertexta All. (M. Echinus DC.). 
The true M. ciliaris Willd. is however found in Tenerife. M. 
intertexta All., distinguished by its very large oblong-ovoidal 
perfectly smooth un webbed pods with vertically divergent closely 
and curiously interwoven spines, has not occurred in Madeira, 
although found in Gr. Canary. 
5. M. tribuloides Desr. in Lam. 
Hairy-pubescent ; stip. large laciniate fringed, lfts. obovate or 
obcuneate strongly and regularly toothed ; ped. mostly 2- or 4-fl. 
awned ; pods pale or whitish cylindric flat or truncate at each 
end nearly or quite smooth, ultimately hard and corky rugged 
or pitted, of 3-5 or 6 close-set volutions remotely and shortly 
spinose, the margin raised and thickened; spines few distinct 
short thick stout conic or bulbous at the base, scarcely hooked 
at the tip; seeds or.-y. oblong. — Herb. ann. Mad. reg. 1, £ ; 
SD. reg. 1, rr; PS. reg. 1, rrr. Waste rock}' sunny places to 
the E. and W. of Funchal, and in PS. to the SW. ot the town. 
March- July. — Van*. : 
a. Fr. large (diam. 3^-4, ax. 3-3| or 4^- lines) subglobose 
shortly cylindric, spines rather long spreading or divergent every 
way like those of a chestnut-liusk. — M. tribuloides PC. ii. 178; 
WB. ! ii. 65; Koch 178, var. y. rigidula. M. poly morph a F. Tri- 
buloides Desf. ii. 212. M. muricata Brot. ii. 116 ? (not of others). 
M. interupta (sic — qu. intertexta P) Buch ! 198. no. 417. M. poly- 
morpha e. intertexta Madeira Fr. Masson 1777, B1I. ! — Mad. to 
the E. of Funchal along the Cani^o road about the Louros, Neves, 
Brazen Head, &c. plentifully ; sea-clifFs, in the S. Deserta very 
rare, passing into ; not found in PS. — Distinguished from ail 
the preceding by its hairiness, and by its nearly smooth or naked 
