COMPOUND FLOWERS 151 



leaves are sessile, pinnatifid, or very wavy ; in another they are oblong, 



broad, and lobed, and run down the stem ; and in a third they are flat, entire, 



or slightly lobed. This Thistle of our field-borders is more frequent than 



welcome, its creeping perennial root rendering it one of the most difficult to 



eradicate of all our native species ; and its leaves are so prickly, that we 



might say with Chaucer, — 



" For Thistels sharpc of many ruancis, 

 Xetlis, thornes, and crooked briers ; 

 For moche they distroubled nie, 

 For sore I dradid to liarmid be." 



It is a handsome plant, about two feet high, its flowers, in July, forming 

 clusters of a light purple colour, and of a sweet musky odour ; and it is re- 

 markable for bearing in the axils of its leaves galls, which are said to be 

 powerfully astringent, and to be useful in cases of haemorrhage. The trouble 

 which this Thistle causes to the agriculturist induced our fathers to call it the 

 Cursed Thistle, and truly it requires no small care and industry to keep it 

 within bounds. It is generally found in dry, loamy soils, seldom occurring 

 in any quantity in sand or gravel. A case was recorded in the Farmer's 

 Magazine years ago in which the descending roots of the plant were dug out 

 of a quarry, and were nineteen feet long : nor are the horizontal roots of less 

 amount. Mr. Curtis planted once, in April, about two inches of the root of 

 this Thistle, in his garden. By the following November, it had thrown out 

 stolons all around, several of them being eight feet long, and some sending 

 up leaves five feet from the original root. The whole having been taken up, 

 as it was supposed, and washed, was found to weigh four pounds. But it 

 Avas not yet eradicated, for next spring it appeared again, nearly about the 

 same spot ; and between fifty and sixty young plants appeared from the 

 fragments of the root which had been left in the soil, notwithstanding all the 

 efforts of the gardener to exterminate them. On some ill-cultivated arable 

 lands this Thistle often forms half the produce, when it aftbrds ample 

 employment to weeders, who, supplied with strong gloves and pincers, busy 

 themselves in spring in striving to banish it from the soil. Some English 

 botanists doubt if cows and horses will eat it, but Mr. Loudon remarks on 

 this subject: "Those who know anything of the history of agriculture in 

 Scotland before the introduction of turnips, will recollect that it formed the 

 suppering of housed cattle during five or six weeks of every summer." The 

 ashes of this plant jaeld a very pure vegetable salt ; and another plant of the 

 same genus, C. oleraceus, which is said to have been once found wild in 

 Lincolnshire, has fleshy roots like the skirret, that may be boiled for the 

 table. It Avas found in 1823 in this country, but is not a native plant. It is 

 much eaten by the Russians, who boil the leaves in spring, as the Siberians 

 do both the leaves and roots of various species. This Creeping Thistle is 

 sometimes called Horse Thistle. Like the other kinds, it has an abundance 

 of seeds, and Spenser might have been watching its plumes when he wrote 

 the comparison — 



" Els as a Thistle-douue iu the ayre doth float, 

 So vainly slialt thou to and fro be tost ;" 



but an inspired poet had anticipated the comparison : for Isaiah spoke of "the 

 rolling thing before the whirlwind;" which learned commentators say should be, 



