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SYNC&NESIA. JEQUALIS. Bidens. 917 
C. vulgaris. Stem with many flowers, forming a terminal corymb : 
rays of the calyx yellow white: (outer ones wing-cleft. E.) 
{FI. Dan. 1174 —E.Bot. 1144. E.) — Matth. 669—Clus. ii. 156. 2—Dod. 739. 
2— Lob. Obs. 489. 1, and Ic. ii. 20. 2— Ger. Em. 1159. 1— Park. 981 — 
Fuchs. 121— J. B. iii. a. 81. 2— Trag. 859— Dod. 728. 1— Lonic. i. 68. 2 — 
Ger. 997. 1 —{Pet. 15. 10. E.) 
Root long, spindle-shaped, with a few stiff fibres. Stem twelve to fifteen 
inches high, tumid just above the root, cylindrical, ribbed, purple, slightly 
downy, dividing above like an umbel. Leaves numerous, clothing the 
whole stem and decreasing in size upwards, the lower sessile, the upper 
embracing the stem, deeply toothed, the teeth armed with numerous 
yellow thorns; those at the base of each branch larger than the upper 
stem-leaves; those of the branches smaller than the stem-leaves, the 
uppermost join and form the lower ones of the calyx. Calyx scales pur¬ 
plish, edged and terminated with branching yellow thorns; the innermost 
strap-shaped, pointed at the end, dry, fringed with long hairs towards 
the base, straw-coloured within; without, reddish brown towards the base, 
but straw-coloured at the point. Blossom segments spear-shaped, purple, 
straw-coloured below. Seed woolly ; down sessile, rays nine to twelve, 
generally eleven, either single, or with two or three clefts, fringed with 
long hairs. Receptacle, the chaff longer than the florets. Woodw. 
{Blossom, tube ^white, border in the outer florets purple, in the inner 
whitish; sometimes entirely white. Mr. O. Roberts. E.) 
Common Carline Thistle. (Welsh: Ellast cyjfredin. E.) Dry mea¬ 
dows and pastures. B. June.* 
BI'DENS.f {Recept. chaffy: Down rough with reversed 
prickles : Calyx tiled : scales channelled. E.) 
B. cep/nua. Leaves spear-shaped, embracing the stem: flowers 
drooping, on bent fruit-stalks: seeds upright, (with about four 
bristles. E.) 
Curt. 192 — FI. Dan. 841—(j^. Bot. 1114. E.)— J. B. ii. 1074—Gm 574— 
Pet. 20. 6 — Lob. Adv. 227, and Ic. i. 529. 
* The flowers of this species expand in dry, and close in moist weather. They retain this 
property for a Jong time, and therefore are employed as hygrometers. It is said to be an ex¬ 
cellent remedy in hysterical cases. Amaen. Acad. III. p. 64. Goats eat it. Cows refuse it. 
Linn. Its presence indicates a very barren soil. (It particularly infests dry, sandy pastures. 
Hand-weeding when confined to local spots may be serviceable $ but when spreading 
generally, no time should be lost in using the plough, harrow, and horse-lioe, and a 
judicious course of cleansing crops before returning the land to permanent pasture. 
Holdich. The divergent tuft with which the seeds are crowned, and by which they are 
wafted through the air, for 
“The kind impartial care 
Of nature, naught disdains ; * * 
****** 
From field to field the feather’d seed she wings 
did not escape the notice of Ossian, who, like other genuine poets, was an accurate ob¬ 
server of the most trivial phenomena, and who fancifully describes “ the zephyrs sporting ora 
the plain, pursuing the thistle’s beard.” The whole plant, after having perfected its seeds, 
turns white and shrivels, in which state it often remains through the winter or even second 
year, as Linnaeus observes, a mournful spectacle ! E.) 
f (From bis, double, and dens , a tooth j alluding to the awns of the seeds, E.) 
