SYNGENESIA. ASQUALIS. Carduus. 
913 
Milk Thistle. Irish: Beaman breach . Welsh: Ysgallen wen . E.) 
Pitch-banks and road-sides, borders of corn-fields, and on rubbish. 
A. June—Aug.* 
C. erioph'orus. Leaves with wing-cleft pointing two ways, every 
other segment upright: calyx globular, woolly : (down feathery. 
E.) _ 
Jacq. Austr. 171 —E.Bot. 386. E.)— Clus. ii. U4>—Dod. 723—Lob. Obs. 
482. 1 , and Ic. ii. 9. 2—Ger. Em. 1152— J. B. iii. a. 57— Park. 978 — 
Mill. Ic. 293. 
Stem four or five feet high, angular, scored, woolly, much branched. Boot- 
leaves one to two feet long, wings distant, with two lobes, unequal, the 
. larger strap-shaped, the lesser spear-shaped, very entire, but fringed 
with a few fine thorns; mid-rib stiff, extending out into a sharp thorn ; 
above green, with numerous short stiff hairs pressed closely; underneath 
with a thick, woolly, white down. Stem-leaves embracing the stem ; 
lobes not so regular, all spear-shaped, the terminal one long. Fruit- 
stalks slender, extremely cottony. Calyxes clustered, terminating the stem 
and branches ; scales strap-spear-shaped, ending in a long softish thorn, 
covered and interwoven with a thick cobweb-like wool. Anthers ex¬ 
tending beyond the blossom. Style much longer than the anthers. Sum¬ 
mit very slightly cloven. Seeds large, whitish, nearly oval, without 
ridges. Down feathered, shorter than the blossom. Woodw. Blossom 
purple, or white, very large. 
(The large lobes of the leaves pointing alternately horizontally and down¬ 
wards, distinguish this plant at first sight. 
Woolly-headed Thistle. Friar’s Crown. ( E. Eriophorus. Linn. 
| Cnicus Eriophorus. Willd. Hook. Sm. E.) Both in flat and moun¬ 
tainous meadows and pastures. Ray. Bredon Hill, Worcestershire. 
Nash. By the road-side between Stamford and Grantham, plentifully. 
Smith. About Ripton, Huntingdonshire. Mr. Woodward. Hillend 
Bank, in Longdon Parish, Worcestershire. Mr. Ballard. On the foot¬ 
way between Clarkton Leap and Kemsey, Worcestershire. Stokes. 
Near Truro, Cornwall. (Bewcastle, Cumberland. Hutchinson. About 
Revel’s Hill, Dorset, but rare. Pulteney. Berry Head, Devon. Rev. J. 
Pike Jones. By the side of the road from Warwick to Stratford, at the 
turn to Snitterfield; Overley Hill. Perry. Road-side near Oxenford 
castle and Chesterhall. Maughan. Grev. Edin. Hedge and quarry at 
Ful well, near Sunderland. Near Bristol, as around Kevnsham, &c. E.) 
B. July—(Aug. E.)F 
* This Thistle is eaten when young as a salad. The young stalks peeled, and soaked in 
water to take off the bitterness, are excellent, and may be either boiled, or baked in pies, 
(after the manner of Rhubarb. E.) The scales of the cup are as good as Artichokes. 
The root is palateable early in the spring. (The seeds yield an oil, which may be used 
in emulsions. (“ Our Lady’s Milk Thistle,” according to Romish tradition, a proper 
diet for nurses ! It is worthy of a place in the shrubbery fore ground, waving its ascribed 
efficacy. E.) 
t (According to Miller, (t one or two of these plants may be allowed a place in some 
abject part of the garden for its singularity.” We should rather commend it to the 
shrubbery or wilderness, and there sparingly. Upon the disc of this, and other late 
flowering Thistles, may frequently be observed, with vital energies all but extinct, (in his 
sad extremity warning the proudest mortals) the torpid humble-bee, resigned to die 
upon his crimson couch;—“just lifts a limb to pray forbearance of injury, to ask for 
peace, and bids us leave him, leave him to repose,” E.) 
Y 2 
