Abstract: Since the 19th century many botanists have studied the Chinese Cirsium and a great number of taxa or names has been reported, of which many still need to be reviewed critically This work is a preliminaxy result of study on Chinese species of Cirsium. As many as 65 taxan or names in the literature are reduced to synonym in this paper. The Cirsium in China so far known comprises 49 species, of which 9 are described as new, 1 is a new combination and 4 are new records in Chinese flora. These new species are: C. subulariforme Shih, S. muliense Shih, C. fanjingshanense Shih, C. periacanthaceum Shih, C. racemiforme Ling et Shih, C. vernonioides Shih, C. chrysolepis Shih, C. tenuifolium Shih and the new combination is C. viridifolium (Hand. -Mazz.) Shih. The new records in China are C. serratuloides (L.) Hill., C. incanum (S. G. Gmel.) Fisch. ex MB., C. lanatum (Roxb. ex Willd.) Spreng and C. alatum (S. G. Gmel) Bobr. The Chinese Cirsium is divided into 8 sections in the present paper, of which 3 are new, namely, Sect. Isolepis Shih, Sect. Tricholepis Shilh and Sect. Hymenolepis Shih, and I is a new combination, namely, Sect. Spanioptilon (Cass.) Shih. In addition, a new species of the genus Alfredia, A. aspera Slih, is described.

Key words: Compositae, Cynareae, Cirsium, Classification.