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S O N C H U S cseruleus.
Blue Sow-thistle.
SYNGENESIA Polygamia-cequalis.
G en. Char. Receptacle naked. Calyx imbricated*
swelling at the base. Down simple, sessile.
Spec. Char. Flowerstalks and caly x bristly, racemose.
Leaves somewhat lyrate ; their terminal
lobe triangular and very large.
Syn. Sonchus caeruleus. Camer. Epit. 281. Sm. FI.
Brit. 815. Hull. ed. 2. 227.
S. canadensis. Linn. Sp. Pl. 1115. With. 674.
S. alpinus. Huds. 336. FI. Dan. t. 182. Willd.
Sp. PI. v. 3 . 1519.
S. flore cteruleo. Ger. em. 294.
T h e beautiful Blue Sow-thistle of the Alps has found a
place in the list of British plants, on the authority of Wallis’s
History of Northumberland, which turns out to be totally unworthy
of regard, ' for Mr. Winch assures us his plant is only
Cichorium Intylus! Fortunately however the genuine Sonchus
cceruleus was discovered on the Aberdeenshire mountain of
Lochnagore, by Mr. G. Don, who in September 1801 sent us
the leaf delineated in our plate.
This species is perennial, flowering in July and August.
The stems are a yard high, erect, simple, leafy, each terminating
in along irregular cluster of large purplish-blue flowers,
whose stalks, calyx, and narrow bracteas, are clothed with
red prominent viscid bristly hairs, not unlike the pubescence
of a rose. Leaves alternate, variously lyrate, with a very
large, pointed und toothed, triangular terminal lobe, and
clasping the stem with their dilated base. They are smooth
and dark green above; glaucous beneath, with many veins
and a hispid rib.