CARLINE NEAR THE PYRAMIDS 



the creature could wait the time of finding a loop large 

 enough and suffer the dragging process at the end, we 

 should say the case would not be so hopeless as that of our 

 friend's fat pig, who, when she was ailing, had a mind to kill 

 her to make sure on her."^ The brambles and briers 

 of Gilead and Ezekiel were probably brambles of which 

 Rubiis discolor is common in Palestine,^ and the Butcher's 

 Broom (Ruscus acukatus). This last plant is really of the 

 Lily family, and its flat leaf-like branches end in a sharp 

 spine. The rabbit does not eat it.^ 



Amongst foreign thorny and spiny plants it is very 

 difficult to make a selection. 



Theophrastus (one of the very earliest botanists — see 

 p. 37) describes a class of shrub very common in Phrygia, in 

 which the leaves are produced at the base of the young shoots, 

 which latter end at the top in branch thorns. These thorns, 

 therefore, entirely cover the foliage and keep off that 

 vegetable demon the goat. Some of the Crucifers, Roses, 

 Composites, Labiates, etc., take on this habit in goat-infested 

 countries.* 



In Egypt, near the Pyramids, one often finds Carlina 



acaulis, a little thistle which has no stem, but is merely a 



flower seated in the middle of a rosette of leaves which lie 



flat on the sand. In the centre there is a circle of sharp 



spines, each of which is from one to two inches in length. 



The nostril of a hungry camel or donkey is sure to be pierced 



if it tries to eat the leaves. The spines of this thistle, like 



those of our Carline and the Centaurea calcitrapa (thistle of 



the Bible), spring from the bracts surrounding the flower. 



^ Lindley's Treasury of Botany. 



2 Ridley, Pharmac. Journ.y May 19, 1900. 



5 Maxwell, Memories of the Months, First Series, 1, pp. 74-76. 



* Kerner, I.e. 



184 



