Sow-thistle
Including Atalanthus. ORD. Compositae. A genus comprising about twenty-four species of greenhouse or hardy, annual or perennial herbs, sometimes shrubby at base. Flower-heads yellow, mediocre or rather large, irregularly corymbose-paniculate or sub-umbellate, rarely solitary; involucre conical after flowering, the bracts in many series, imbricated; receptacle flat, naked; florets all ligulate; pappus bristles copious. Leaves radical or alternate, the cauline ones often auriculate-amplexicaul, entire, toothed, pinnatifid, or dissected. S. arvensis (Corn Sowthistle) S. oleraceus (Hare's Lettuce, Milk Thistle), and S. palustris, are included in the British Flora. S. oleraceus was formerly used as a potherb. Few of the species boast of any horticultural merit. The four shrubby species described below are sometimes grown in conservatories, on account of their elegant foliage. They thrive in common soil, and may be increased by cuttings, inserted in sand, under a glass.
S. gummifer (gum-bearing).* fl.-heads few, in an irregular, glabrous corymb; involucral scales blackish, slightly appressed, acuminate. Summer. l. glabrous, pale beneath; sub-radical ones pinnatifid, the lobes triangular, slightly toothed, acuminate, the terminal one lanceolate-oblong; cauline leaves auricled, rounded, amplexicaul. h. 2ft. to 3ft. Canary Islands. 1861. (B. M. 5219.) S. Jacquini (Jacquin's).* Lachuza de Pastor; Pastor's Lettuce. fl.-heads deep golden-yellow, 2in. to 3in. in diameter; involucral bracts appressed, slightly woolly, obtuse. March. l. crowded, 6in. to 12in. long, 2in. to 3in. broad, spreading and recurved, cordate and half-amplexicaul, oblanceolate, pinnatifid to or beyond the middle, denticulate and ciliate: lobes triangular, acute. h. 1ft. to 2ft. Canary Islands, 1882. A stout, erect, slightly-branched herb, with a woody stem below, sparingly clothed here and there with patches of snow-white wool. (B. M. 6142.) S. pinnatus (pinnate). fl.-heads in a corymbose, branched panicle; involucral scales appressed, glabrous, acuminate, linear or scarcely lanceolate. Summer. l. glabrous, pinnatipartite; lobes linear-lanceolate, slightly toothed or entire, the terminal one elongated. h. 3ft. Madeira, 1777. S. radicatus (long-rooted). fl.-heads in a glabrous, irregular corymb; involucral scales blackish, the outer ones broadly ovate, the inner ones linear-lanceolate. Summer. l., radical ones somewhat lyrately pinnatipartite, glaucous beneath, with ovate, obtuse, slightly toothed lobes, the terminal one obtusely triangular; cauline leaves auricled, rounded, amplexicaul. h. 1ft. Canary Islands, 1780. (B. M. 5211.)