Nat. ord., Compositae.

Synonym. - Carduus Marianus.

Milk Thistle, St. Mary's Thistle.

Habitat. - Southern Europe. Rare, and probably only introduced into Britain.

Characters. - An annual or biennial, 2 or 3 feet high, not much branched and glabrous, or with but very little cottony wool. Leaves smooth and shining above, and variegated by white veins; the lower ones deeply pinnatifid, with broad, very prickly lobes; the upper ones clasping the stem by prickly auricles, but scarcely decurrent. Flower-heads large, drooping, solitary at the ends of the branches, with purple florets. Bracts of the involucre very broad at the base, with a stiff, spreading, leafy appendage, ending in a long prickle, and bordered with prickles at its base. Hairs of the pappus simple.

Reference to Horn. Proving. - Hale's New Remedies.

Parts employed. - Equal parts of the root and seed with the hull on.

Preparation. - Tincture.