132 OUR COMPOUND FLOWERS. 



Thistle was emblazoned was rife in these religious associations and 

 adoptions *. 



There are many pleasant remembrances associated with our com- 

 pound plants. In early spring our village children go forth, in happy 

 groups, to gather the Daisy, which they make into nosegays with the 

 bog-spinks and the buttercups, — or they string the pretty flower into 

 necklaces, — or they dress a twig of the budding thorn with it, stick- 

 ing a flower on every shoot and spine ; and, while thus amused, the 

 infirm or convalescent nurse will, silently and unobserved, place her 

 foot on the gowan, in the hope, cherished still amidst many mis- 

 givings, that new health and life is now assured to her. As the 

 season advances, girls may often be seen, in our green lanes and mea- 

 dows, pulling the Dandelion, the fistular stalks of which they join 

 together in long linked chains either for bracelets or for relief from 

 ennui ; and the school-boy blows away the seed down in the hope of 

 being told that his time for play is not yet expired, or that ne may 

 now safely return from his truant stroll -f. And now when summer 

 has made all vegetation rife, our boys do, as we once did, wander to 

 a distance to gather the best of dandelions and sow-thistles for the 

 pet rabbits, and I would be loath to forget the pleasure of these ex- 

 cursions ; nor less so, the friendly combats when, in autumn, we 

 pelted each other with adhesive burs, or slily stuck them to the 

 backs of our elderly and unnoticing friends, I like to recall these 

 childish plays, — and the time too when, in coming manhood, our 



* A silly tradition carries the origin of the Thistle as the national badge 

 up to the Danish invasion. In a night assault a barefooted Dane trod on 

 a Thistle, and uttering a cry from the sudden pain, the sleeping Scotch 

 were timeously aroused and succeeded in defeating the enemy. Hence- 

 forth the Thistle was elevated to its present distinction. See Notes and 

 Queries, v. p. 281. — Sir Harris Nicholas traces the badge to James III., 

 for, in an inventory of his jewels. Thistles are mentioned as part of the 

 ornaments. Ibid. i. p. 90. — But, according to Pinkerton, the first authen- 

 tic mention of the Thistle as the badge of Scotland is in Dunbar's beau- 

 tiful poem entitled " The Thrissell and the Rois," written in 1503, on 

 occasion of the marriage of James IV. with Margaret Tudor. Hamilton 

 of Bangour expressly states that the plant was the " monarch's choice " 

 (Notes in Dunbar's Poems, ii. p. 219) ; and Sir D. Lindsay, in 1537, men- 

 tions it as the emblem of James V. " quharein all Scotland saw their haill 

 plesance." Dunbar, to vindicate his Sovereign's choice, elevates the 

 " Thrissill " to the sovereignty of all herbs and of " every flour of vertew, 

 most and leist ; " and in the symbol finds the noble qualities of a King. I 

 would that my readers would refer to the poem, of which I can here quote 

 one stanza only : — 



" Than callit scho all flouris that grew on feild,j 

 Discirnyng all thair fassionis and effeiris : 

 Upone the awfuU Thrissil scho beheld. 



And saw him kepit with a busche of speiris ; 

 Considering him so able for the weiris, 

 A radius croun of rubeis scho him gaif, 



And said, In field go furth, and fend the laif." — Works, i. p. 8. 

 t " Her treading would not bend a blade of grass. 



Or shake the downy blow-ball from its stalk." — Sad Shepherd. 



