Milk-Thistle, or Ladies Th istle, Carduus marianus, L. an indigenous plant, growing on ditch-banks, road-sides, the borders of corn-fields, and on rubbish: it flowers in the month of August.

Though often a very troublesome weed in pasture and other lands, the milk-thistle may be eaten in the spring as a salad : and the tender stalks, if peeled and soaked in water to extract their bitterness, afford a delicious dish : the scales of the flower-cup may be used as a substitute for artichokes ; and the roots, as well as the leaves, while young, are wholesome food.—Rabbits, likewise, are exceedingly fond of the leaves and stalks of the milk-thistle, which tend to preserve their health, when kept in a domestic state.