OUR COMPOUND FLOWERS. 131 



of the whole nation, it is in particular the badge of the clan Stewart. 

 On the wet sides of some hills we, not unfrequently, found the C. 

 heterophyllus, or gentle thistle, which was much and justly admired, 

 and by some (erroneously) thought peculiar to Scotland : this, how- 

 ever, could not be the national emblem, as, being destitute of thorns, 

 it would ill accord with their formidable Latin motto." (Leighton's 

 Flora of Shropshire, p. 399.) Mr. Dovaston has somewhere made 

 himself merry with the " Cocknies," and yet who but one of that 

 race would have gone amongst the Gael to enquire after a Scotch 

 device or fashion, more especially after the badge of a clan which, 

 Mr. Dovaston should have known, had a Merse or Berwickshire 

 origin* ? And the reason Mr. Dovaston assigns for excluding Car- 

 duus heterophyllus from the honourable distinction, ought to have 

 equally convinced him that the opinion of his learned friends in and 

 about Edinburgh was untenable, for there are several common 

 Thistles to which the "Nemo me impune lacessit" is inapplicable. 

 It has occurred to me that a solution of the question might be sought 

 for in an examination of the figures impressed on the money of the 

 Kings of Scotland. Now the first who so marked his money was 

 James V. ; and on the coins of his reign (1514 to 1542), the head 

 or flower of a Thistle only is represented. On a coin of James VI. 

 of 1599 (Plate ii. fig. 4) there are three Thistles grouped and united 

 at the base, whence two leaves spread laterally, and the stalk of the 

 plant is spinous. On later coins, as in one of 1602 (Plate ii. fig. 5), 

 there is only a single head, while the leaves and spines are retained ; 

 and this figure is the same given on all subsequent coins, — the form 

 of the flower itself having suffered no change from its first adoption. 

 This evidence seems to me to put Carduus nutans, and the greater 

 number of the species, out of court, and very much to invalidate the 

 claims of the Onopordum ; but greatly to strengthen our belief that 

 Carduus marianus was the chosen emblem of the national pride and 

 character, although it must be admitted that the resemblance between 

 the plant and the picture of the artist is somewhat postulatory. 

 The bold motto was the addition of James VI., and Carduus ma- 

 rianus is almost the only species that would naturally suggest it, or 

 that really deserves itf ; but I suspect the reason for the preference 

 of Carduus marianus as the emblem was the fact of its dedication 

 to the mother of our Saviour, — a drop of whose milk, having 

 fallen on the leaves, imprinted the accident in those white veins 

 which so remarkably distinguish them J. The period at which the 



* The Royal family had their origin in the Stewarts of Bonkil or Buncle. 

 The remains of the old fortalice are still visible. 



t Professor Balfour, in " The Bass Rock," p. 419, Edin. 1848. An ar- 

 gument in its favour may be derived from the fact of its having " been 

 cultivated in the neighbourhood of castles in Scotland," about whose ruins 

 it is now found. 



X " The purple-flowered Lady's Thistle, the leaves of which are bejiuti- 

 fully diversified with numerous white spots, like drops of milk, is vulgarly 

 thought to have been originally marked by the falling of some drops of the 

 Virgin Mary's milk on it, whence, no doubt, its name Lady's, i. e. Our 

 Lady's Thistle." Brand's Pop. Antiquities, i. p. 48. (Bohn's edit.) 



K 2 



