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ONOPORDUM Acanthium.
Cottofi-’Th'iflle.
(ol
SYNGENESIA Polygamia-aquaTis.
Gen. Char. Cal. fwelling, its fcales fpreading and
fpinous. Recept. cellular, a little fcaly.
Spec. Char. Calyx-fcalcs fpreading every way, awl-
fhaped. Leaves ovate-oblong, finuated, woolly on
both tides.
Syn. Onopordum Acanthium. Linn. Sp. PI. 1158.
Sm. Fl. Brit. 856. Hudf. 354. With. 704.
Hull. 180. Relh. 307. Sibtb. 247. Abbot. 177.
Curt. Lond. fafc. 5. t. 57.
Carduus tomentofus, Acanthium didtus, vulgaris.
Raii Syn. 196.
I n wafte ground about towns, and by road-fides on a gravelly
foil, this very confpicuous plant often occurs; on other foils
it is entirely unknown, as in moil parts of Yorkthire,
Derbyfhire, and other rocky or mountainous tracts. It flowers
in July or Auguft, and is biennial.
The whole herbage is clothed with a white cottony web,
eafily detached by rubbing. The ftem rifes to 4 or 5 feet in
height, and is winged, the leaves being completely decurrent,
ovate,, edged with large unequal fpines. Flowers terminal,
folitary, large, ere<ft, purple. Calyx globofe, becoming
deprefled or flattifli, confiding of innumerable, fpreading,
lanceolate, cottony fcales, tipped with yellow fpines. Receptacle
cellular like a honey-comb, its partitions rifing into
unequal pointed fcales. Seeds obovate, brown, polilhed.
Down rough, deciduous, turning reddifli with age.
The feeds of this, as well as of Carduus marianus, are the
favourite food of Goldfinches, the Fringilla carduelis of
Linnaeus.
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