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P I C R I S echioides.
Brijily Ox-tongue.
S Y N GEN ESI A Polygamia-aqualis.
G en. C har. Receptacle naked. Cal. double ; the
inner equal; the outer lax. Down feathery. Seeds
tranfverfely rugged.
Spec. Char. Outer calyx of five very large prickly
leaves. Seed-down ftalked. Leaves waved.
Syn. Picris echioides. Linn. Sp. PL 1114. Sm. Fl.
Brit. 814. Hudf. 342. With. 673. Hull. 172.
Relb. 297. Sibth. 240. Abbot. 168. Curt. Lond.
fajc: 3 . t .$ i .
Hieracium echioides, capitulis Cardui benedidli.
Rail Sjn. 166.
F o u n d about hedges, borders of fields and banks, principally
on a clay or loamy foil, flowering in June and July, but it is
not a plant of general occurrence. About London it feems
to be more frequent than in Norfolk. We have however feen
it in unufual abundance in the grounds of Edward Rigby, Efq.
at Framingham near Norwich, and by Wrongay church 5
miles from Lynn.
Root annual, tap-fhaped, often branched. Herb rather
milky and very bitter, remarkable for the rigid fpines, each
growing out of a white tubercle, which are fcattered over it,
and which, added to other briftles that fringe the leaves and
clothe the ftem, caufe it nol to be handled with impunity.
The leaves are undulated, and of a bright tinning green; the
upper ones heart-thaped, clafping the ftem, which rifes to 2
or 3 feet in height, and is much branched. Flowers rather
large, and of a full yellow. Outer calyx of 5 large heart-
fhaped leaves, a little diftant from the inner, which confifts
o f about 8 clofe leaves, equal in length, each producing from
near its top a Angular pinnate purplith awn. Seeds beautifully
wrinkled or ftriated tranfverfely, bearing their plumy down
on a ftalk,