Japan Flora: Stems 1-1.5 m. long, rather slender, glabrous at base; median and lower cauline leaves thin, elliptic-lanceolate, acuminate, narrowed at base, sometimes whitish above along the puberulcnt nerves, loosely cobwebby beneath, sessile or short-pctiolate, pinnatifid, the lobes 5-7 pairs, oblong-lanccolatc to lanceolate, acuminate, sometimes coarsely incised near base, spines 5-10 mm. long; heads spicate, sometimes short-pcdunculatc, ascending in anthe­sis; involucres tubular, scarcely cobwebby, prominently viscid, 1.6-1.7 cm. long, 1-1.7 cm. wide; bracts 7-seriatc, the outer short, lanceolate to ovate, acute to acuminate, the median oblong or narrowly so, usually acuminate, often spreading at apex; corollas purplish, 17-18 mm. long. Sept-Oct.

Honshu (Bitchu Prov.).

var. ishizuchiense Kitam. Lobes of radical leaves about 8 pairs, long-acuminate; spines of cauline leaves large and stout, 6-15 mm. long; involucres long- acuminate and spreading. Shikoku.