12 
filiform, the two stigmas violet-coloured, very narrow, coherent 
except at the summit, encircled at the base by minute papillules. 
Fruit compressed, almost ellipsoid, but more attenuated towards the 
base; when ripe brownish or remaining pale outside and very 
minutely foveolar-dotted, slightly constricted below the depressed 
summit. Pappus somewhat or hardly shorter than the corolla, 
finally deciduous, the constituting capillulary setules merely 
subtle-ciliolated ; thus this species not being a Plume-Thistle. 
When the branches are more broadly dilated by the decurrent 
leaves, then this plant as a variety bears the name Carduus tenui- 
florus (Curtis). To this Thistle is similar Carduus crispis, L., 
which has not yet any particular hold on Victorian soil, but is 
likely to invade hereafter our colony also, it being of still wider 
range in Europe, Asia and Africa than Carduus pycnocephalus ; 
it can already be recognised by leaves generally less lobed, less 
pungent and less rigid, by less crowded headlets with involucres 
much more widely spreading out, by narrower involucral bracts, 
also more sub tie-furrowed fruits. 
Explanation of Plate III . 
Flowering branch with its leaves, natural size. 
1. Longitudinal section of a headlet of flowers. 
2. A floral bract. 
3. A complete flower with young fruit; also bracteal bristlets 
and pappus. 
4. A separate corolla, the stigmas also visible. 
5. A corolla, laid open, showing the stamens. 
6. Style and stigmas. 
7. A fruit. 
8. Transverse section of a fruit; also showing the cotyledons 
of the seed; longitudinal section of fruit (the cotyiedonar 
division drawn too deeply). 
9. Pappus-bristlet. 
1-9. Magnified, 1 slightly so, the rest to various extent. 
IV. 
CARDUUS MARI ANUS, Linn k. 
(Siiybum Marian um, Gsertner.) 
The Spotted Thistle, called also the Maria-Thistle and the 
Milk-Thistle. Indigenous to Southern Europe, Northern Africa, 
and South-Western Asia. The generic name Siiybum is recorded 
as the Roman one by Plinius, and originated from the vernacular 
of the plant in the ancient Greek language. Next to Carduus 
lanceolatus, hitherto the most frequent Thistle here. 
