Flora Medica

CYNARACE^E.Nat. syst.ed. 2. ^.251.CENTAUREA.Scales of involucre various. Florets of the ray almost alwaysenlarged and sterile, more seldom either not longer than thedisk, or g". Achaenium compressed, with a lateral hilum infront. Pappus consisting of rather filiform scabrous setae, usuallyin many rows, the inner row generally being smaller andconverging, seldom as long as or longer than the rest. DC.951. C. Calcitrapa Linn. sp. pi. 1297. Eng. Bot. t. 125.DC.prodr. vi. 597 Way sides all over Europe, especially inthe South, in the Crimea, Candia, Egypt, Madeira.Stem between erect and diffuse, very much branched, hairy. Leaves; sessile, pinnatifid the lobes linear, acute, toothed. Heads ovate,nearly sessile among the upper undivided leaves. Involucral scales extendedinto a long, strong, spreading spine which is channelled above,and has 2 or 3 little spines on each side at the base ; the innermostscarious and obtuse at the apex. Pappus 0, DC. Has been used asa febrifuge, and has even been preferred to gentian.952. C. Centaurium Linn. ;953. C. Behen Linn. ;and 954.C. Jacea Linn, have all similar properties, especially the first.955. Kentrophyllum lanatum DC. has been called Blessedthistle on account of its supposed febrifugal powers.SILYBUM.Heads homogamous, many-flowered and equal-flowered. Involucreovate; the scales leafy, the exterior dilated into anovate, long, spiny-pointed appendage, spiny-toothed in therounded part ; the inner ones lanceolate and entire. Receptaclefleshy, fringed. Florets unequally 5-cleft, ringent, with the limbtwice as short as the tube. Stamens with monadelphous papillosefilaments; anthers with short appendages. Fruit compressed,smooth, with a broad central areola at the base, and aterminal one bearing a horny pappose ring. Pappus in manyrows ; the setae shortly bearded. DC.956. S. Marianum Gartn. carp.il 378. t. 168. f. 2. DC.prodr.vi. 616. Carduus Marianus Linn. sp. pi. 1153. Eng. Bot.t. 976. Smith Eng. Fl. iii. 386. Waste placesinmany partsof Europe also in the West of Asia, the East Indies, Madeira;and Chili. (Milk Thistle.)Root tap-shaped. Herb very large and spreading, to the exclusionof all other plants, for the most part not hairy nor downy. Stem 4 or5 feet high,in a manured soil more lofty, branched, round, solid, leafy.467 H H 2