Sess. 1 893-94.] The Rose, Thistle, and Shamrock. 87 



Eosa arvensis to be the rose of England, for lie derives the 

 name of Albion from the white rose — " Albion ob rosas albas." 

 Shakespeare, in "Henry VI, Part I.," Act ii. sc. 4, leaves 

 the question more in doubt. He makes four of his characters, 

 York, Warwick, and two lawyers, pluck a white rose from a 

 brier ; and two, Suffolk and Somerset, pluck a red rose from a 

 thorn. 



Not very far from the marble slab above mentioned is a 

 building on the roadside — not its first site — a sandstone 

 gateway, carved with intermingled roses and thistles. It was 

 originally erected in the time of James V. I have examined 

 this slab carefully, but the roses on it are mere conventional, 

 heraldic roses, like nothing in nature. Many of them have 

 only four petals. 



Dunbar's poem, " The Thistle and the Eose," decidedly fav- 

 ours the opinion that the rose of England is the white rose 

 (Rosa arvensis). 



Of thistles we have ten species in Scotland, belonging to 

 three genera : the musk thistle (Carduus nutans) ; the welted 

 thistle (Carduus acantlwides crispus) ; the slender-flowered thistle 

 {Garduus tenuifiorus) ; the milk thistle (Carduus Marianus); 

 the spear-plume thistle (Onicus lanceolatus) ; the marsh plume 

 thistle (Cnicus palustris) ; the creeping plume thistle (Gnicus 

 arvensis) ; the woolly-headed plume thistle (Gnicus eriophorus) ; 

 the melancholy plume thistle (Gnicus heterophyllus) ; and the 

 cotton thistle (Onopordum Acanthium). Carlina vulgaris is 

 also found, but it is exceedingly rare, and may therefore be 

 left out of consideration. There is one other British species, 

 Cnicus acaulis ; but it is only found in Dorset, Norfolk, and 

 Essex, so it can hardly claim to be the Scotch thistle. At 

 the same time, one legend makes it out as being the true 

 Scotch thistle. The legend is — that a party of Danish 

 marauders had nearly succeeded in surprising a Scottish 

 camp, when one of the Danes trod on a thistle, and gave 

 a scream, which awoke the Scotch sentry, and thus saved 

 the army from destruction. This story best suits Cnicus 

 acaulis ; but if so, it must have been an English camp, not 

 a Scottish one. The scene must have been Norfolk, not Fife. 



The other chief claimants are — (1) Carduus Marianus, found 

 at Dumbarton, but not common in Scotland. This has in its 



