BARCKIIA USIA, the name of a genus of plants belonging to the natural order Camposittr, the tribe Giehorsicar, and the sub-tribe La ditear. It has many-flowered heads, a double involucre, the inner of one row, the outer of short lax scales ; tho fruits 4-cornered, all (or the inner ones only) gradually contracted into a long beak. This genus has several European species, two of which only are natives of Great Britain. The flowers are yellow or pale purple. Some of the species are cultivated in gardens, where they form a pretty and easily cultivable border-plant. The British species are—B. toraxecryhtia, with rough runcinate-pinnatifid leaves, erect heads, bristly and downy involucre covering half the pappus, its outer scales ovate-lanceolate with a membranous margin, herbaceous bracts, tho fruits all equally beaked. B. with hairy runcinate-pinnatifid loaves, nodding unopened heads, hairy and downy involucre as long as the pappus, its outer scales lanceolate, acute, downy ; the marginal fruits slightly beaked, shorter than the involucre, central ones with long beaks equalling it. The first species has a stem one or two feet high, yellow
flowers, purple beneath, and is found in limestone districts. The second has a stem from six to twelve inches in height, with yellow flowers. It grows in chalky places in England, but is a rare plant B. sctosa, a German species, has been lately found In several dis tricts of Great Britain, but it appears most probable that this species has been introduced by means of clover and other seeds used for agricultural purposes.
(Koch, Flora Cermanica ; Babington, Manual of British. Botany ; Phytologisi, vol. i.)