152 COMPOSITE 



" the thistle-down hefore the whirlwind." Children pick the thistle-plumes for 

 filling cushions ; and though it is a tedious process, yet sometimes the thought 

 of making a pillow for some one who is poor or sick helps to perseverance, 

 and the employment may be made to awaken kindness and sympathy, as well 

 as to prompt to active exercise in the open air. The plant has prickly leaves, 

 and merits its name, if Wachter's account of the origin of the word " thistle " 

 be true. The Anglo-Saxon thistle he thinks may have been thyd-sel, from the 

 verb thyd-an, to prick. The Dutch and Grcrmans call the plant Distel ; and 

 the Danes, Tidsel. To-day, in Cornwall, the thistle is called Dysel. In 

 France it is called Chardon, and in Italy Cardo. 



4. Woolly-headed Plume Thistle (C eriophorm). — Leaves half clasp- 

 ing, but not forming a wing down the stem, white and cottony beneath, 

 deeply pinnatifid, the lobes two-cleft, the segments pointing alternately up- 

 wards and downwards, and each terminated by a strong spine ; involucres 

 very large, globose, woolly ; the scales with a long spinous point turning 

 downwards ; roots biennial. This species is distinguished from the others by 

 the very thick down which clothes the scales of the involucre, and which 

 prevents the seeds from readily dispersing. It grows in waste places on a 

 chalk or limestone soil, but is local in England, and very rare in Scotland. 

 It has purple flowers, as large as those of the Milk Thistle, and its leaves are 

 clothed with white down ; but the branched furrowed stem is rarely more 

 than two feet high. It blossoms in July and August. 



5. Melancholy Plume Thistle (C heteropliyllus). — Leaves partly 

 clasping, not forming a wing, lanceolate, soft, undivided or toothed, smooth 

 above, white and downy beneath ; heads mostly solitary ; involucres egg- 

 shaped, slightly downy ; scales pointed and closely pressed ; root perennial. 

 This handsome flower has nothing sad in its appearance, for the colour of its 

 Ijlossom is a rich amethyst purple, and its involucres are of a bright though 

 dark-green colour ; but it was formerly used by empirics as a medicine in 

 hypochondriasis. It is frequent on the mountainous pastures of the North, 

 and is not uncommon on moist hilly places in many parts of the kingdom. 

 It has a creeping root, and a cottony stem, marked with lines, and about 

 three feet high. It stands almost alone among this thorny tribe, as being a 

 Thistle which one may A'enture to gather without wounding the fingers. 



6. Tuberous Plume Thistle (C. tuberdsus). — Leaves sessile, not 

 forming a Aving, lanceolate, deeply pinnatifid, lobed, fringed with minute 

 prickles, hairy above, and either hairy or cottony beneath, lower ones on 

 long stalks ; stem without prickles ; flowers one, two, or three together ; 

 scales of the involucre closely pressed, nearly smooth, pointed, with a spine ; 

 root perennial. This is a rare Thistle, found on the Wiltshire Downs, and 

 flowering in July and August. The roots are fleshy knobs, and contain a 

 large quantity of starch-like substance, which is mingled with a bitter, tonic, 

 and nutritious principle ; and the powder into which they may be ground is 

 so light in quality, and so very nutritive, that it has been recommended as a 

 good diet for consumptive persons. 



7. Meadow Plume Thistle (C p-atMsis). — Leaves mostly from the 

 root, soft ; stem-leaves sessile, lanceolate, waved at the margin, fringed with 

 minute prickles, cottony beneath, and somewhat downy above ; heads globose, 



