downy sow-thistle: A genus of the polygamia æqualis order, belonging to the syn-genesia class of plants; and in the natural method ranking under the 49th order, Compositæ-semiflosculus. The essential characters are: The receptacle is villous; the calyx is many-parted, tubular, and rounded; and the pappus is simple and feathery.

Species. 1. The integrifolia is an annual plant, growing naturally in the south of France, Spain, and Italy. It rises to the height of a foot and an half, with woolly branching stalks. The flowers are produced in small clusters at the top of the stalks. They are yellow, and like those of the sow-thistle; so do not make any great appearance. 2. The raguina is a native of the Cape of Good Hope. The leaves are extremely white, and much indented on their edges. The flower-stalks grow about a foot high, having small clusters of yellow flowers, which appear in July. The seeds sometimes ripen in Britain, but not always. 3. The Janata is a native of Sicily and of the country round Montpelier. The lower leaves are indented and woolly, but those on the stalks are entire. It seldom rises more than a foot high, supporting a few yellow flowers at top. 4. The sinuata grows in Spain and Portugal: the leaves are broader, longer, and more downy, than either of the other sorts; the flower-stalks rising more than a foot high. They branch into several footstalks, each sustaining one large yellow flower, shaped like those of hawk-weed, which are succeeded by oblong black seeds covered with down.

Culture. All these plants are easily propagated by seeds, which should be sown in autumn, where they are to remain, and will require no other culture than to thin them where they are too close, and to keep them free from weeds. The third sort must have a light dry soil, or it will not live in this country.