C. MARIA NUS. Leaves amplexicaul, halberd-shaped, wing-cleft, spinous: calyx without any leaves near it: thorns channelled, and set with other little thorns: (down capillary. E.) 1 Kniph. 1-Curt. 148-(E. Bot. 976. E.)-Black. 79—Ludw. 35-Fuchs. 56—J. B. iiì. a. 52. 2—Trag. 850-Lonic. i. 70. 2—Ger. 989-Pet. 21. 9 -Dod. 722. 1-Lob. Obs. 479. 1, and Ic. ii. 7. 2-Ger. Em. 1150-Park, 976. 1-H. Ox. vii. 30, row 2. 1, f. 4-Matth. 676.' (Stem four to six feet high, leafy, cylindrical, scored, smooth. E.) Leaves generally ornamented with broad and beautiful white veins, though sometimes entirely green. The large purple blossom and the strong thorns of the calyx, an inch or more in length, sufficiently distinguish this from other indigenous species. pappus may be employed as an useful ingredient for the manufacture of paper. The agriculturist whose lands are infested with these noxious weeds, should unceasingly exercise his small hoe or spud; though, for complete extirpation, the instrument for extracting Docks may be preferable. Fallow and hand-weed; but in clay, where they will not draw, cut close with a spade, says Holdich. Mr. Curtis ascertained the annual increase of its root by planting a piece two inches long and the thickness of a goose's quill, and a small head of leaves. By the second of November the root had extended itself eight feet, and when dug up and washed it weighed four pounds. This is the common Way Thistle or Pasture Thistle, which grows almost every where. If neglected, no weed is more unsightly and injurious. The second growth, observes Mr. Holdich, often gets into reapers' bands; but the first, if not destroyed, will overtop the wheat, bearing numerous clusters of flowers, and shedding their winged seeds in most noxious abundance. The propagation by root seems also unceasing. The same writer states, "the roots are jointed, white, and of a very succulent texture. I have found in spring, innumerable small Thistles, as it were, bursting from their matrix, and have gently pulled the horizontal zigzag roots from the soil, with many green buds and shoots just appearing. This, therefore, is their manner of reproduction: the fibres left shoot out larger roots, which also rise higher in the soil, and spread; these form buds, and hence come our annual crop of Thistles. Thus Providence has contrived a necessity for perpetual exertion, attended with pro portionate success. By the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat bread," is an ordination, the fulfilment of which is the principle which puts all mankind in motion. The necessity of subsistence produces industrious hands for every department of labour; but the indolent nature of man requires every stimulus to exertion. The weeds of the field excite emulation, and foul fields are always a reproach. Thus are we compelled by an unseen hand to better habits and more active industry." Essay on Weeds of Agriculture. The same argument may be found admirably extended in the "Pastoral Conversations" of Dr. Warton, exposing the folly of Atheism. The most unwelcome weeds are there proved not only to be essential to stimulate the requisite exertion of man, but, in a certain degree, to be indirectly conducive even to his sustenance, by supplying food to numerous tribes of insects, which again tend to the support of other animals, as birds, &c. on which he partially depends.-This, and several other of the Carduacea, may be considered dioecious. Mr. Smith (in Linn. Tr. vol. xiii.) observes, C. arvensis rarely produces seed; which is chiefly attributable to the separation of the sexes, and the plants of each sex growing together in large patches without intermixture: hence the chance of fecundation being effected is much diminished. This apparently defective arrangement would seem to be obviated by an extraordinary power of radication. E.) Cassida liriophora inhabits this species of Thistle. Uredo suaveolens, "confluent, odoriferous, seeds purplish brown," is frequently found on the leaves, changing them to a light yellow in spots. In corn-fields may some-times be observed a beautiful little nondescript mouse, the smallest of British quadrupeds, which attaches its nest, (" a wonderful procreant cradle," as Mr. White describes it, perfectly round, about the size of a cricket ball, most artificially platted, and composed of. the blades of wheat,) containing eight young ones, suspended, as it were, in the head of a thistle! E.) MILK THISTLE. Irish: Bearnan breack. Welsh: Ysgallen wen. E.) C. ERIOPHORUS. Leaves with wing-cleft pointing two ways, every other segment upright: calyx globular, woolly: (down feathery. E.) Jacq. Austr. 171-E. Bot. 386. E.)- Clus. ii. 154-Dod. 723-Lob. Obs. 482. 1, and Ic. ii. 9. 2-Ger. Em. 1152-J. B. iii. a. 57-Park. 978Mill. Ic. 293. Stem four or five feet high, angular, scored, woolly, much branched. Rootleaves one to two feet long, wings distant, with two lobes, unequal, the larger strap-shaped, the lesser spear-shaped, very entire, but fringed with a few fine thorns; mid-rib stiff, extending out into a sharp thorn; above green, with numerous short stiff hairs pressed closely; underneath with a thick, woolly, white down. Stem-leaves embracing the stem; lobes not so regular, all spear-shaped, the terminal one long. Fruitstalks slender, extremely cottony. Calyxes clustered, terminating the stem and branches ; scales strap-spear-shaped, ending in a long softish thorn, covered and interwoven with a thick cobweb-like wool. Anthers extending beyond the blossom. Style much longer than the anthers. Summit very slightly cloven. Seeds large, whitish, nearly oval, without ridges. Down feathered, shorter than the blossom. Woodw. Blossom purple, or white, very large. (The large lobes of the leaves pointing alternately horizontally and downwards, distinguish this plant at first sight. WOOLLY-HEADED THISTLE. FRIAR'S CROWN. (E. Eriophorus. Linn. Cnicus Eriophorus. Willd. Hook. Sm. E.) Both in flat and mountainous meadows and pastures. Ray. Bredon Hill, Worcestershire. Nash. By the road-side between Stamford and Grantham, plentifully. Smith. About Ripton, Huntingdonshire. Mr. Woodward. Hillend Bank, in Longdon Parish, Worcestershire. Mr. Ballard. On the footway between Clarkton Leap and Kemsey, Worcestershire. Stokes. Near Truro, Cornwall. (Bewcastle, Cumberland. Hutchinson. About Revel's Hill, Dorset, but rare. Pulteney. Berry Head, Devon. Rev. J. Pike Jones. By the side of the road from Warwick to Stratford, at the turn to Snitterfield; Overley Hill. Perry. Road-side near Oxenford castle and Chesterhall. Maughan. Grev. Edin. Hedge and quarry at Fulwell, near Sunderland. Near Bristol, as around Keynsham, &c. E.) B. July-(Aug. E.)† This Thistle is eaten when young as a salad. The young stalks peeled, and soaked in water to take off the bitterness, are excellent, and may be either boiled, or baked in pies, (after the manner of Rhubarb. E.) The scales of the cup are as good as Artichokes. The root is palateable early in the spring. (The seeds yield an oil, which may be used in emulsions. ("Our Lady's Milk Thistle," according to Romish tradition, a proper diet for nurses! It is worthy of a place in the shrubbery fore ground, waving its ascribed efficacy. E.) + (According to Miller, "one or two of these plants may be allowed a place in some abject part of the garden for its singularity." We should rather commend it to the shrubbery or wilderness, and there sparingly. Upon the disc of this, and other late flowering Thistles, may frequently be observed, with vital energies all but extinct, (in his sad extremity warning the proudest mortals) the torpid humble-bee, resigned to die upon his crimson couch;—“ just lifts a limb to pray forbearance of injury, to ask for peace, and bids us leave him, leave him to repose." E.) C. PRATEN'SIS. Leaves spear-shaped, irregular, and edged with unequal prickles; cottony beneath: stem cottony, generally with one flower and two leaves: (calyx cottony: down feathery. E.) E. Bot. 177-Pet. 22. 1-Clus. ii. 148. 1—Ger. Em. 1183. 1-Lob. Obs. 314. 4, and Ic. i. 583. 1-Park, 961. 3—J. B. iii. 45. 2. Root fibrous and creeping. Stem one and a half to two feet high, soft, cob-webbed or cottony, cylindrical, generally unbranched and supporting a single flower, but sometimes a branch terminated by another flower rises from the bosom of the upper leaf. Root-leaves four or five, oblongspear-shaped, ragged at the edge, and fringed with softish prickles unequal in size, not forming regular teeth, as represented in most of the figures. Stem-leaves generally two, sometimes only one, semi-amplexicaul; the upper not prickly at the edge, but terminated by a long soft thorn. All the leaves green, and more or less hairy above, grey and cottony underneath. Calyx, scales thick and strong, cob-webbed or cottony at the edges, terminating in a soft thorn. Blossom red. Anthers with five horny, yellow, spear-shaped points. Summit cylindrical, blunt, not notched at the end. (Mr. Woodward observes, that this plant varies with two, three, or even four flowers, distant, alternate. When more than one flower, the second overtops the terminal one. E.) MEADOW THISTLE. SINGLE-HEADED THISTLE. C. heterophyllus. Lightf. 456. Relh. 306. Cirsium Anglicum. R. Syn. 193. (C. pratensis. Huds. With. Ed. three and four. Hull. Sibth. Fl. Brit. &c. Cnicus pratensis. Willd. Hook. Sm. A species wholly unknown to Linnæus. E.) Moist meadows and pastures, not uncommon. Near Heydon, Norfolk. Bryant. Swampy meadows near Robinson's End, Malvern Chase. Mr. Ballard. Meadows between Pucklechurch and Mangotsfield, plentiful. Rev. G. Swayne. Woods in the Isle of Wight. (Wortham, Suffolk, abundantly. Mr. Woodward. Houghton Moor, Yorkshire. Teesdale; and between Goule and Thorne, with Selinum palustre and Myrica Gale. Rev. W. Wood. Castle Eden Dean; and south shore of the Tyne. Mr. Winch. Loch-na-daal, Isla. Dr. Walker. Hook. Scot. E.) P. May-June. (C. HETEROPHYL'LUS. Leaves embracing the stem, spear-shaped, fringed with small prickles, (either entire or jagged, woolly underneath stem downy, mostly single-flowered: down chiefly feathery. E.) (Hook. Fl. Lond.-E. Bot. 675.-Fl. Dan. 109. E.)—Hall. 7, vol. i. p. 77 -Mill. 94—Clus. ii. 148. 2-Ger. Em. 1183, fig. 2d-Park. 961. 5J. B. iii. 46. 2-Pet. 22. 2. Root creeping, knotty, black. Stem three feet high, erect, seldom divided, with one, or sometimes two flowers, leafy, cylindrical, furrowed, cottony. Leaves on the upper surface very smooth, cottony, white beneath; rootleaves on leaf-stalks; stem-leaves alternate, numerous, at the base heartshaped, amplexicaul. Blossom terminal, becoming upright, drooping when expanded, large, purple stalked. Calyx egg-shaped, slightly pubescent, scales spear-shaped, erect, naked at the point, keeled, brownish, terminated by a little spine. Anthers whitish. Stigma strap-shaped, protruding, purple, notched at the end. Down of the outer seeds rough, of the inner ones feathery. Fl. Brit. C. helenioides of Linnæus differs materially, having a stem twice as high, many more leaves, altogether undivided, and four or more much smaller flowers, sessile at the very top of the stem. Smith states that it is not known either wild or cultivated in Britain. MELANCHOLY THISTLE. (Gaelic: Cluas-an-fheidh. E.) C. heterophyllus. Linn. Oed. E. Bot. C. helenioides. Huds. Lightf. With. Ed. 3 and 4. Hull. Cirsium Britannicum Clusii repens. Raii. Syn. Bauh. Mill. Cnicus heterophyllus. Willd. Hook. Sm. Grev. E.) Mountainous pastures in Yorkshire, Westmoreland, Cumberland, and Wales. Ray. Coppice near Giggleswick, in Skirrith wood, and in the pastures about Bordley, near Malham. Curtis. Mulbarton, near Norwich. Mr. Crowe. Between Shap and Orton, Westmoreland. Mr. Woodward. About Hamsterley and Witton, Durham. Mr. Robson. Pentland Hills, near Currie. Dr. Greville. Roslin and Auchindenny woods. Maughan. Hook. Scot. Said to be more frequent in the Highlands. E.) P. July-(Aug. E.)* C. ACAU'LIS. Stemless: calyx smooth: (down feathery. E.) Root-leaves spreading in a circle close to the ground, stalked, wing-cleft; wings irregularly lobed, and waved, angular, thorny at the edge, green on both sides, hairy towards the base. Flowering-heads one or more, rarely sessile. Fruit-stalks one to two inches high, hairy. Calyx, lower scales short, oval-spear-shaped, upper spear-shaped, stiff, without thorns. Blossom even with the anthers. Style longer. Summit deeply cloven. Seed very small. Down long, feathered. Woodw. Blossom purple, large. Mr. Relhan informs me, that he once found a plant on Gogmagog Hills with a stem five inches high, bearing three flowers, and a leaf similar to the root-leaves under each flower: and thus it appears when cultivated in a garden. (Mr. Oade Roberts has observed, on Painswick Hill, a variety with flowers perfectly white. E.) DWARF THISTLE. (C. acaulis. Linn. Cnicus acaulis. Willd. Hook. Sm E.) Mountainous and rocky dry pastures, especially in calcareous soil. (But too common in many fields, and upland grounds, in Dorsetshire. Pulteney. E.) Blackheath, near London. Dry heaths and commons in Norfolk, very frequent. Mr. Woodward. Dry heaths on the Western side of the county of Durham. Mr. Robson. (Dover, Box-hill, Newmarket; but very rarely, if ever, found in the north of England. Mr. (The Thistle has long been accounted the emblem of Scotland, as the Rose is sym bolical of England, the Shamrock of Ireland. It appears to have been substituted by the town council of Edinburgh on their banner, to the exclusion of their patron, St. Giles, about the middle of the fifteenth century; a circumstance probably originating in the dawning light of the Reformation, and an increasing antipathy to popery. This species in particular has been deemed the badge of the house of Stuart, whose princes were wont to wear the Cluas-an-fheidh in their crown or bonnet. It is, indeed, as the token flower of resistance, far less illustrative of the national motto, "Nemo me impune lacessit," than several of its congeners; though but too significant of the fallen condition of that ill-starred race, since, (according to the Jacobite song), "The die was risk'd and foully cast Upon Culloden day." E.) Winch. Opposite Moorhall, on the Bidford road; and between Alcester and Red-hill, on the hedge bank. Purton. On a sloping field between Stockwood and Queen's-Charlton, Somersetshire, abundant. E.) P. July. ONOPOR'DON. Recept. like a honeycomb : Calyx tumid: Scales spinous. O. ACANTHIUM. Calyx scales expanding, their points standing out: leaves egg-oblong, indented, (cottony on both sides. E.) Curt. 334—(E. Bot. 977. E.)—Fl. Dan. 909—Fuchs. 57—J. B. iii. a. 54. 2 -Trag. 858-Dod. 721. 2—Ger. Em. 1174. 5-Park. 979. 1-Pet. 21. 10-Lonic. i. 71. 2-Ger. 988. 1 and 2-Dod. 721. 1-Lob. Obs. 476. 1, and Ic. i. 1. 1-Ger. Em. 1149. 1-H. Ox. vii. 30, row 2. 1-Matth. 671 -Lonic. i. 70. 3-H. Ox. vii. 30, row 1. 1. Plant generally covered with a white cottony pubescence. Leaves ovalspear-shaped; the lower extremely large, with deep triangular teeth, which are again toothed, and each tooth terminated by a sharp whitish thorn, productions of the ribs; the upper spear-shaped with a few distant teeth. Stem leafy, border irregularly toothed, and thorny, the thorns proceeding through and strengthening the border. Heads single, upright, terminal. Calyx scales ending in sharp thorns. Woodw. (Stem upright, about five feet high. Flowers terminal, solitary, erect, purple. E.) ARGENTINE. COTTON THISTLE. On rubbish and road sides, (chiefly on a gravelly soil. E.) B. July (Aug. E.)+ CARLI'NA. Calyx radiated: the scales next the blossoms long, coloured: Recept. chaffy: Down feathery. Cows refuse this Thistle. It kills all plants which grow beneath it, whence it is very injurious in meadows. Linn. (However entertaining to the eye of the poet, when, "Wide o'er the thistly lawn as swells the breeze, A whitening shower of vegetable down to the agriculturist, (whose "frenzy" may possibly be of a different description,) this plant ever appears one of the most pernicious of weeds, which ought not to be tolerated even on the borders of fields, or waste places. Mowing proves but a palliative; the infested pasture should be broken up, and subjected to a course of crops. Where such renovating process cannot be immediately commenced, perhaps the application of salt, under certain circumstances, might prove a desirable expedient, vid. Holdich's Essay on the Weeds of Agriculture, 1825, p. 69. E.) The different species of Thistles afford nourishment to the Cassida viridis and nebulosa: Papilio Cardui; Cicada cornuta: Cimex Cardui; Musca solstitialis; and Aphis Cardui : (also Tingis Cardui, Vanessa Cardui, Cassida cruentata, Apion Carduorum, Andrena Listerella, Osmia Leaiana, Tortrix Mylleri, and Populana. E.) The receptacle, and the young stems, may be boiled and eaten like artichoke. The ancients thought this plant a specific in cancerous cases. Cows, sheep, and horses refuse it. (The seeds yield a favourite food for the smaller birds. (Apion Onopordi, according to Kirby, is found only upon this plant. The cotton is sometimes collected by poor persons for pillows and beds, instead of feathers. Gerard would seem to speak feelingly of the defensive weapons of such plants, when he describes them as "set full of most horrible sharpe prickes, so that it is impossible for man or beast to touch the same without great hurt and danger." E.) (From a certain exotic species, (supposed C. acaulis, whose root is bitter, pungent, and tonic,) said to have been indicated by an angel to the Emperor CHARLEMAGNE, for the cure of his army afflicted by the plague. E.) |