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S O N C H U S oleraceus.
Common Sow-thijile.
SYNGENES1A Polygamia-aqualis.
G en. C har. Receptacle naked. Cal. imbricated,
fwelling at the bafe. Down Ample, feffile.
Spec. Char. Flower-ftalks cottony. Calyx fmootb.
Leaves runcinate, toothed.
Sy n . Sonchus oleraceus. Linn. Sp. P i. 1116. Sm.Fl.
Brit. 818. Bud/. 336. With. 675. Hull. 177:
Relb. 291. Sibth. 237. Abbot. 169." Curt. Bond,
fafc. 2. t. 58.
Sonchus n. 1— 6. Rail Syn. 162, 163»
O n E of the moil common of all weeds in every kind of
cultivated land; and like fuch vagrant annuals it affumes
a variety of forms according to the variations of foil and
moifture. The flowers are to be met with from midfummer
to the end of autumn.
The root is fpindle-fhaped and annual. Herb brittle, milky,
deftitute of pubefcence, except the young flower-Aalks, which
bear a foft white cottony web that foon falls off. Stem round,
branched, glaucous. Leaves runcinate, fringed with little
briffly teeth; their bafe clafpirig the Aem. Flower-flalks
axillary and terminal, forming cymes, fmooth except in a
young Aate. Calyx fmooth, glaucous, at firft cylindrical and
blunt, but foon fwelling out very much at the bafe. Corolla
yellow, clofed at night or in bad weather. Seeds obovate,
angular and ffriated. Down fmooth, very white and Alky.
Receptacle dotted.