COMPOSITE. 19 
Var. 3 is a remarkable plant, which probably ought to be con- 
sidered a sub-species, but which is retained as a variety because 
there appear to be on the Continent several intermediate forms 
(which I have not seen) which seem to render it impossible to draw 
any line of demarcation between it and the common form. In this 
form the leaves arc not only flat and less deeply divided, but the 
spines are so weak that the leaves may be bandied with impunity, 
and they are all much more attenuated at the base. The anthodes 
too, in the specimens which have come under my notice, arc 
arranged in a long lax panicle. 
Creeping Flame- Thistle. 
French, Herbeaux-varices. German, Feld KratzdisteL 
HYBRIDS. 
CARDUUS PRATENSI-PALUSTRIS. 
Plate DCXCV. 
Unicus Forsteri, 8m. Eng. El. Vol. III. p. 390. 
Intermediate between C. pratensis and C. palustris; differing 
from the former in the leaves being less decurrent, so that the 
stem is not so continuously winged ; the under side of the leaves 
generally slightly arachnoid-pubescent ; the stem, especially the 
upper part, cottony ; the anthodes larger and more globose, less 
aggregated, usually not more than 2 or 3 together ; the rootstock 
perennial ; the phyllaries with shorter and weaker spines. From 
C. pratensis it is distinguished by the radical fibres being more 
slender ; the flowering-stems growing more in tufts ; the leaves 
more deeply sinuate-pinnatifid and spinous, those in the middle 
of the stem slightly decurrent, not hoary-white beneath ; the an- 
thodes much smaller and less arachnoid, the outer phyllaries with 
an evident spine. 
In boggy places. Very rare. Frant, two miles from Tun- 
bridge Wells (Mr. S. E. Forstcr), and White Moor Pond, near 
Guildford, Surrey (Mr. II. C. Watson) ; near Eridge and on Ditch- 
ling Common, Sussex (Mr. Borrer). 
CARDUUS ACAULI-PRATENSIS(?). 
I'LATIC DCXCVI. 
C. Woodward ii, //. C. Watson, Cyb. Brit. Vol. II. p. 83. 
Intermediate between C. acaulis and C. pratensis, and varying 
extremely in appearance, but always more nearly resembling the 
