CART] 
2. Carthamus lanatns, or yellow diftaft'-thillle. or wool¬ 
ly carthamus: Rem hairy, woolly toward the lop ; lower 
leaves pinnatifid ; upper ftem clafping, toothed. This 
plant is annual, peri filing foon after t lie feeds are ripe ; 
the lower leaves fpread flat upon the ground ; thefeaie 
five or fix inches long, narrow, and deeply indented on 
both fines; they are hairy, and have a few foft fpines on 
their edges; the ftallc rif'es about two feel- high, covered 
with hairs, and garnifhed with oblong hairy leaves, which 
embrace the (talk, and are deeply flnuated, with fiiarp 
thorns growing on their edges ; the upper part of the (la Ik 
divides into many branches, which have leaves of the 
fame form but fma’ler; the flowers’are produced at the 
end of the branches, having a cinder of fliff, hard, prick¬ 
ly, leaves below the fcaly calyx, which contains many yel¬ 
low florets, fucceeded by oblong angular feeds. It flowers 
in June and July, and the feeds ripen in autumn. This 
i’pecies grows naturally in the fouth of France, Spain, and 
Italy, where the women life the fialks for diftaft's, whence 
it had t he title of difhff thiflle. It is by fome called baf- 
Jard wild laffron. The leaves are fometimes ordered for 
medicine, and are. fuppofed to have the fame virtues as 
cardans benediClus'. Cultivated in 1596, By Gerarde. 
3. Carthamus creticus, or Cretan carthamus;: dem 
fomew hat glolTy ; calyxes a little woolly ; flofcules about 
nine ; lower leaves lyrate. This is an annual plant, grow¬ 
ing near four feet high. It differs from the foregoing in 
having a fmootli ftalk; the leaves are very fliff, deeply- 
indented, fmooth, and armed with very ftrong fpines; 
the heads of flowers are oval, and the florets u hite. It 
was difeovered by Tournefort in the ifland of Crete or 
Candia, whence he fent the feeds to the royal garden at 
Paris. Haller obferves, that the florets have five black 
lines at the opening, which divide and make the edges of 
the fegments black : thofe in the circumference are abor¬ 
tive. The calyx is cobwebbed. It was cultivated in 1739, 
by Mr. Miller. 
4. Carthamus Tingitanus, or Tangier carthamus : ra¬ 
dical leaves pinnate ; flem leaves pinnatifid ; ftem one- 
flowered. This has a perennial root. The fialks rife 
about a foot and a half high, feldom putting out any 
branches; leaves the whole length of the fialk, narrow, 
fpear-fhaped, deeply ferrate, each of the ferratures end¬ 
ing in a fiiarp point, (thofe next the root, as Linnaeus ob¬ 
ferves, entirely pinnate, but the ftem-leaves pinnatifid.) 
The fialk is terminated by one, large, fcaly, head of blue 
flowers, and was firft brought England from Tangier. 
Mr. Miller cultivated it in 1768. Linnaeus remarks, that 
it is fenreely diftinfl from the fpecies next following. 
5. Carthamus cceruleiis, or blue-flowered carthamus, 
or baflard faffron : leaves lanceolate, fpiny-toothed ; ftem 
one or two flowered. This rifes with a Angle fialk about 
two feet high, of-a purplifh colour, hairy, and channel¬ 
led, clofely befet with.broad fpear-fhaped leaves, fnaroly 
ferrate, and covered with a (hort hairy down. The fialk 
is terminated by a Angle large head of blue flowers, hav¬ 
ing a fcaly calyx compofed of two orders of leaves ; the 
outer broad, long, and armed with fiiarp fpines on their 
edges ; the inner narrow, and terminated by a fiiarp thorn. 
It flowers in June and July, and the feeds ripen in autumn. 
It is fuppofed by fome to be the fame with the foregoing, 
which is a great miftake, for they are extremely d : fferent. 
It grows naturally in Spain, France, and Italy, on amble 
land. According to the obfervation of Linnaeus, the ftems 
are often procumbent; the leaves are fmooth on their up¬ 
per fui-face ; the calyx is leafy ; the anthers are black ; 
and the down of the- feed hairy. It was cultivated with 
us in 1640. 
6. Carthamus mitifltmus, or fmall carthamus : leaves 
unarmed ; thofe next the root toothed 3 on the ftem pin¬ 
nate. Sometimes the plant has no ftem, and fometimes 
the ftem is four inches high. The down of the feed is 
hairy. The garden plant is hardly to be diftinguifhed, by 
its decumbent ftem four inches in length, and its longer 
foft Annate leaves; flower bright blue. Native of France, 
-I A M U S. 855 
about Paris and Montpellier. Introduced here in 1776, 
by M. Thou in. 
7. Carthamus carduncellus, or mountain carthamus: 
ftem-Leaves linear, pinnate, the length of the plant. Roof 
perennial ; ftem about fix inches high in gardens, chan¬ 
nelled and hairy. Native of the fouth of France, Spain, 
and Italy. The root is eaten in. Africa. Cultivated in 
1739, by Mr. Miller. 
S. Carthamus arborefeens, or tree carthamus: leaves 
enfifonn, finuate-toothed. The whole plant is pubefeent ; 
ftem firm, of a man’s height, evergreen ; leaves a foot 
long, pinnatifid-finuatc, toothed, moftly fpinous at the 
end; rib white; flower yellow, lvveet-fmelling. Mr. 
Miller received it from Andalufia, where it grows natu¬ 
rally in great plenty, and cultivated it before 1759. 
9. Carthamus falicifolius, or willow-leaved carthamus: 
fhrubby ; petioles I piny ; leaves lanceolate, entire, tomen- 
tofe beneath, pungent at the end ; branches one-flowered. 
This is a woody flirtib ; the branches long and tomentofe ; 
the leaves approximating, fmooth above, IIIky beneath. 
Native of Madeira. Introduced in 17S4, by Meflrs. Lee 
and Kennedy. 
10. Carthamus corymbofus, or corymbed carthamus : 
flowers corymbed, numerous. Root perennial ; ftem (in¬ 
gle, white, fmooth, and channelled, never putting out 
any fide branches; leaves long, narrow, pale green, clofe¬ 
ly armed on their edges v. ith ftiort ftiff fpines, which come 
out double; ftems terminated by Angle, oval, fcaly, heads 
of white flowers, each Tcale terminated by a purplifh fpine : 
the fcaly calyx is clofely joined at the top, fo that few of 
the florets appear vifible above it; and it is guarded by a 
border of long narrow prickly leaves, rifing conliderably 
above the flowers,; which appear from June to Align ft. 
It has the habit of echinops ; the quality is corrofive ; the 
fructification fhould be,examined more accurately. Na¬ 
tive of Apulia, the Hellefpont, Lemnos, and Thrace. 
Mr. Miller fays that he received the feeds from Spain, 
where it grows naturally. Cultivated in 1714, by Charles 
Dubois, Efq. 
Propagation and Culture. The firft fort is propagated by 
feeds, which fhould be fowr. in April, upon a bed of light 
earth : the beft way is to low them in drills, drawn at two 
feet and a half diftance from each other, in which the. 
feeds fhould be fcattered thinly, for the plants muff not 
ftand nearer each other than a foot in the rows ; but, as 
fome of the feeds will fail, fo a greater quantity fhould be 
fown, as it will be eafy to thin the plants at the time 
when the ground is hoed. If the feeds are good, the 
plants will appear in lefs than a month ; and in a fortnight 
or three weeks after, it will be proper to hoe the ground 
to deftroy tlie weeds, and at the fame time the plants 
fhould be thinned where they aie too clofe ; but at this 
time they fhould not be feparated to their full diftance, left 
fome of them fhould afterwards fail ; fo that, if they are 
now left fix inches afunder, there will be room enough 
for the plants to grow, till the next time-of hoeing, when 
they muft be thinned to the diftance they-are to remain for 
good : after this they fhould have a third hoeing, which, 
if carefully performed in dry weather, will deftroy the 
weeds and make the ground clean, fo that the plants will 
require no farther care, till they come to flower ; when, 
if the fafflower is intended for life, the florets fhould be 
cut off from fhe flowers as they come to perfection ; but 
this muft be performed when they are perfectly dry,, and 
then they fhould be dried in a kiln, with a moderate fire, 
in the fame manner as the true faffron, which will prepare 
the commodity for ufe. Bur, if the plants are defigned for 
feed, the flowers muft not be gathered,; for, if the florets 
are cut off, it will render the feeds abortive, though they 
may fwell and, grow to their ufual fize, as lias been frequent¬ 
ly experienced; yet, when they are broken, there will be 
found nothing more than a flieli without any kernel. And 
this frequently happens to be the cafe with, thefe feeds, in 
wet cold feafons; and in very wet ones the germ will rot, 
and never come fo forward as to form a flieli. 
It 
