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[ 9 75 1
CARDUUS aryenfis.
Creeping Thißle.
SYNGENESIA Polygamia-eequaüs.
G en. Char. Ca/, fwelling, imbricated with fpinous
fcales. Recept. hairy, Down deciduous.
Spec. Char. Leaves feffile, pinnatifid, fpinous.
Stem panicled. Calyx ovate ; its fpines minute.
Down feathery.
S y n . Carduus arvenfis. S/n. FI. Brit. 851. Curt.
Lond.fafc. 6. t. 57. Sibth. 245.
C. vulgatiffimus viarum. Rail Syn. 194.
Serratula arvenfis. Linn. Sp. Pi. 1149- Hudf. 349*
With. 696. Hull. 180. Relh. 303. Abbot. 174.
Mart. Ruß. t. 13 a,
W E mod heartily aflent to Mr. Curtis’s removal of this
plant from Serratula to Carduus, it being undoubtedly of the
fame genus as the fpecies in our laft plate, and poffeffing, like
that, the eflential characters of Carduus and not of Serratula.
The Englith name we have chofen feems to exprefs all Mr.
Curtis intended, as well as his epithet curfed; for the lazy
farmer may benefit his fields more by attending to its mode of
growth, than by all the curfes he perhaps has often tried in
vain. While however we perpetually fee annual thiftles, for
want of timely mowing, fuffered to fpread their feeds over a
whole country, we defpair of the requifite means being adopted
to overcome the deeply creeping perennial roots of this very
troublefome weed.
The botanift cannot miftake this fpecies. Its ftems are upright,
about a yard high, panicled, and bearing many paliffi
purple flowers, now and then white. Leaves feffile, not decurrent,
fmoothifh, pinnatifid, very fpinous. Calyx ovate;
fcales broad-lanceolate, downy at their edge, tipped with a
fmall fpine. Seedrdown feathery, deciduous, not permanent
as in Serratula. .
I t grows every where by ro&d-fides and in fields* flowering
in July.