88 The Rose, Thistle, and Shamrock. [Sess. 



favour the fact that it undoubtedly was a sacred plant, the 

 white veins on its leaves having been believed to have been 

 produced by a drop of the Virgin Mary's milk, just as in 

 pagan times a drop of Juno's milk was supposed to be the 

 origin of the Milky Way. It also most resembles the 

 " bawbees " of James V. and Mary, as seen in the coin col- 

 lection in the Museum of Science and Art. (2) Onopordum 

 Acanthium, which is cultivated in gardens as the Scotch thistle, 

 and which, with the possible exception of Cnicus eriophorus, 

 is the handsomest plant of the group. This plant is stated by 

 Sir Walter Scott, in a " Letter to Lord Montague," to be the 

 Stuart badge. If this is actually the case, it would of course 

 be conclusive. (3) Carduus acanthoides, thought by some to 

 be most like the stone thistles in the chapel at Holyrood ; but 

 it appears to me to differ in having spreading involucral scales 

 and sessile globose heads. The leaves are not unlike. (4) 

 Cnicus arvensis, the most common of all thistles near Edin- 

 burgh. This seems to me to be most like the stone thistles 

 of Holyrood, as it agrees with them in having adpressed, in- 

 volucral scales, and a long bare neck. (5) Cnicus lanceolatus, 

 another very common thistle, does not suit at all, as it has 

 spreading scales and winged stem. 



I therefore vote for Cnicus arvensis ; but I hope some other 

 member of the Society will take up the matter, and give us his 

 opinion, after comparing living thistles with the stone ones at 

 Holyrood and Bedford. 



The thistle first appears on Scotch coinage on coins of James 

 III.; but it is far more common after 1500, when "The Thistle 

 and the Eose " was published — i.e., on coins of James V. and 

 Mary. 



While the history of the rose as the badge of England can 

 only be traced to the Wars of the Ecses, and that of the 

 thistle, as the badge of Scotland, to the time of the Stuarts, 

 the date of the shamrock, as the badge of Ireland, can be 

 traced to a much earlier period. The Apostle of Ireland, St 

 Patricius, a native of Clydesdale, when preaching in Ireland 

 early in the oth century, explained the mystery of the Trinity 

 by showing the people a blade of trefoil. After the whole 

 nation had become Christian, the trefoil was adopted as the 

 badge of Christian Ireland. Few missionaries have been so 



