COMPOSITE. 11 
Specimens from Orkney have the under side of the leaves nearly 
ns white as those of Cirsium nemorale of Reichenbach, wliich is 
doubtless merely an extreme variety of Carduus lanceolatus. 
Spear-Thistle. 
French, Cirse Lanceolc. German, Lanzettliche Kratzdistel. 
Dr. "Withering says, — " Few plants are more disregarded than this, and yet its 
nse is very considerable. If a heap of clay be thrown up, nothing woidd 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 artichoke, have the property of 
curdling milk." 
SPECIES V.— CARDUUS ERIOPHORUS. Lirm. 
Plate DCLXXXVII. 
Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XV. Tab. DCCCXXII. 
Cirsium eriophorum, Scop. Koch, Syn. Fl. Germ, et Helv. ed. ii. p. 453. Gr. & Godr. 
Fl. de Ft. Vol. II. p. 211. 
Cnicus eriophorus, Willd. Hook. & Am. Brit. Fl. p. 237. 
Biennial. Stem elongated, branched, not winged. Radical leaves 
attenuated at the base, petiolate, greatly undulated, pinnatipar- 
tite ; segments bifid, with both the lobes entire ; stem-leaves semi- 
am plexicaul, not decurrent, similar to the radical leaves, but with 
the segments (at least in the upper ones) simple, upper surface with 
very minute bristle-like spines, under surface hoary. Anthode 
solitary at the extremity of the stem and branches, or more rarely 
aggregated in pairs. Pericline globose, copiously arachnoid, with 
short floral leaves at the base, which do not overtop the flowers ; 
phyllaries adpressed, narrowly lanceolate, gradually acuminated 
into a narrow spreading point, which is slightly dilated towards the 
apex, ciliated at the margins, central nerve of the outer ones 
excurrent into a short stout spine. Pappus plumose. 
On dry pastures and in waste places, particularly on chalk 
and limestone. Local. Distributed through the greater part of 
England; though probably not wild in the North. In Scotland, 
it occasionally occurs, but only where it has almost certainly 
escaped from cultivation. 
England, [Scotland], Ireland. Biennial. Late Summer 
and Autumn. 
Stem stout, furrowed, woolly, 3 to 5 feet high, corymbosely 
branched towards the apex. Lowest leaves very large, often 2 
feet long; stem-leaves much smaller, all very deeply pinnatilid, 
with strapshapcd lobes joined together in pairs in the lower ones, 
