FLOWERS, FEATHERS AND FINS 



671 



a silent march upon the Scottish camp by marching barefoot ; but a Dane 

 inadvertently stepped on a thistle and his sudden, sharp cry, arousmg the 

 sleeping Scots, saved them and their country ; hence the Scotch emblem." 



Thistle flowers are most attractive to some species of big bumblebees ; 

 but they pay well for their over-indulgence in their sweets. The latter are 

 very abundant and unusually fragrant, so that these flowers are great 

 honey producers of the finest quality. This induces the bumblebees to 

 partake unduly of the generous supply so readily secured at each visit, and 

 a species of intoxication is speedily produced in them, greatly interfering 

 with their locomotory powers, as well as with their power to fly. 



The largest thistle we have in our flora is probably the Pasture or Bull 

 Thistle (Cirsiiiiii piniiiliiiu), while among the smaller stands the Canada 

 Thistle (C. an'cnsc). Then, as stated before, many others belong to sev- 

 eral genera, including the Milk Thistle, the Star Thistles, the Cotton or 



Scotch Thistle, and the rare Blessed 

 Thistle {Ciiicns benedictiis). 



Almost without exception, all 

 these plants have been introduced 

 into this country from Europe. The 

 study of the seeds of thistles and 

 the fertilization of the flowers is an 

 extremely interesting story ; but it 

 is too long to touch upon in the 

 present connection. 



In old fields and along the road- 

 sides throughout the autumn 

 months, when we find the various 

 plants enumerated in the foregoing 

 paragraphs, we will be sure to meet 

 with the widely known garden 

 spider. It also constructs its inter- 

 esting web in our gardens, and 

 sometimes among the shrubbery of 

 the big city parks, as in Central 

 Park in New York City, and in 

 similar localities throughout east- 

 ern United States. When a field 

 covers many acres and becomes 

 overgrown with rank vegetation of 

 many kinds, you will sometimes 

 find this beautiful spider in hun- 

 dreds, their webs being built as 

 shown in Figure 7. Some of the 

 old ones are much larger than the 

 one here shown — so large, indeed, 

 that their webs will hold a cicada, 

 or the humming insect which most people call a locust. We will also find 

 katydids and big grasshoppers in the strong, silken strands forming the web 

 of this famous black and yellow arachnid ; for spiders belong to the 

 Arachncdia and are not insects at all. If the spider's captive has been re- 

 cently caught, it may be in its death struggle, with its cold-blooded captor 

 deliberately finishing his victim and applying the first layer of silken wrap- 

 pings to his body and wings; while, if dead and partly used up, the silken 

 envelope will be very complete and dense, fitting the entire body and wings 

 and limbs of the unfortunate insect with the greatest accuracy and snug- 

 ness. It is a terrible death, when one comes to think of it, for all such in- 

 sects can both realize and appreciate the hopeless predicament they are in ; 

 moreover, they do suffer real pain. 



There is some difference in size of the male and female garden spiders, 

 and they also vary in this particular according to age. Sometimes you will 



A SPIDER THAT WEAVES A MAT TO REST 

 UPON IN IDLE MOMENTS 



Fig. 7 — This is the common Garden Spider 

 {Argiopc) so familiar to everyone living in the 

 country where it occurs. Moreover, it is also to 

 be found in city gardens, which was the case with 

 the one here shown in the cut Note the curious 

 zigzag web it has woven down from its central 

 resting place. 



THIS PARTICULAR THISTLE IS CALLED 



LANCEOL.\TUM FROM THE SHAPE OF 



ITS LEAVES 



Fig. 6 — There are about a dozen diiYerent species 

 of thistles in our flora, and no one of them is bet- 

 ter known or more heartily detested by the '•irmer 

 than the one here shown. Gray calls it the Com- 

 mon or Bull Thistle {Cirsmm lanccoialitni). Its 

 purple flowers are very conspicuous in the ftelds 

 and along the roadsides, from midsummer until 

 late in the autumn. 



VARIATIONS IN THE FORM OF COMMON 



GARDEN SPIDER 

 Fig. 8 — These five specimens were collected 

 near Great Falls, Maryland, in an old, deserted 

 field having an area of some fifteen acres It 

 was in mid-autumn, and many plants and grasses 

 flourished there — chiefly Milkweeds, Pokeberry, 

 Boneset, both blue and white; Black-eyed Su- 

 sans, Joe-Pye Weed, and a great many others. 



