( 3<>4 ) 
wort, or Way-thiftle. Its flowers, ; 
which have an agreeable fmell, you 
obferve, grow in a kind of loofe um- 
bel, on long peduncles, and that the 
entire plant is of a pale green. This 
is probably the Thiftle which Virgil 
reprobates in the following lines, 
fegnifque horreret in amis 
Carduus. 
- It is indeed the moft prolific, and diffi* 
cult to eradicate, of any pernicious weed 
that infefts our corn-fields. It is impoflible 
to extract it with breaking every fibre of 
the root, which Curtis thus defcribes Ra- 
dix perenntSy feres, crajfitie fere dlglti minimi ', 
fordide albida^ profunde defcendem^ repens, un- 
dique longiffimefeprotendens. DifTatisfied with 
Linnaeus's arrangement of this plant, he 
reftores it to the genus Carduus, to which it 
naturally belongs. He gives it the Englifli 
name of Curfed Thiftle, " to awaken," as he 
fays, " the attention of the agriculturift, to 
its nature and pernicious effects." 
We muft not quit this family I fay fa- 
mily j for though arbitrary fyftems may 
change their names, their natural affinity 
will 
