COMPOUND FLOWERS 153 



mostly solitary, terminal, and slightly cottony; scales closely overlapping 

 each other, pointed ; root perennial and creeping. This is a small plant, 

 with a cottony stem, from six to eight inches high, bearing one or more 

 purple flowers in July. It occurs in low wet pastures in England, but is rare 

 in Scotland. 



8. Dwarf Plume Thistle, or Stemless Thistle (C. acaulis). — Stem 

 very short, or scarcely any ; leaves all from the root, smooth, lanceolate, 

 somewhat oblong and pinnatifidj lobes somewhat three-cleft, toothed and 

 spinous ; heads of flowers mostly solitary ; involucre smooth, with closely- 

 pressed, pointed scales; inner scales usually longer than the outer; root 

 perennial. This plant is better named Dwarf and Stemless Thistle, as it 

 sometimes, though rarely, has a stem an inch or more long ; but very generally 

 the flower nestles down among the leaves, which spread all around it. This 

 circumstance at once distinguishes this Thistle; and in some parts of the 

 country, where the soil is chalk and gravel, it is a frequent and very trouble- 

 some plant, occupying much room on the level plain or sunny slope, and, by 

 preventing the growth of the grass, proving very destructive to the pasture. 

 It is not found north of Yorkshire. The flower is deep reddish-purple, 

 large and handsome. It expands from July to September. 



21. Cotton Thistle (Onopdrdum). 



1. Common Cotton Tihstle {0. acdnihium). — Leaves oblong, toothed, 

 spiny, woolly on both sides, and forming a wing down the stem ; involucre 

 globose, its scales spreading, and awl-shaped ; root biennial. This Thistle 

 has its specific name from the leaves, which are somewhat similar in form to 

 those of the acanthus, the plant which is believed to have furnished the 

 ancients with the design of the elegant leaf used in their architecture. That 

 plant is supposed to be the Acanthus mollis of Southern Europe, and is quite 

 distinct from the Thistle tribe. The handsome Cotton Thistle is the one 

 which the Scotsman claims for his badge, and which is often cultivated under 

 the name of the Scotch Thistle. It certainly deserves to be so regarded far 

 better than any other species. Though it occurs as far north as Fife, it is 

 not so common in Scotland as on English soil, where it is one of the most 

 frequent plants of its family, abounding on waste ground, from the towering 

 clift', where it rears its head among the crevices, down to the lowliest valley 

 or the brambled nook, where grasses, docks, and nettles tangle about it, and 

 where its purple flowers rise above them all, on a stem from four to six feet 

 in height. It has a thorny flower-cup, and thorny leaves ; and if legends be 

 true which tell that the invading Dane trod on a Thistle, and by his cry 

 awoke the Scots who were sleeping near, believing in the honour of plighted 

 truce, then this Thistle is well suited to recall the incident, and to bear the 

 old legendary motto. That proud and defiant motto indeed, Nemo me 

 impune lacessit ("No one touches me Avith impunity") — which has jocosely 

 been rendered into homely Scotch by "Ye maunt meddle vvi' me" — seems 

 well suited to this thorny Thistle, which none could grasp with impunity. 

 The Scotsman is proud of his emblem ; and, indeed, the Thistle is one of the 

 most picturesque of our native flowers, and a flower mentioned in earliest 

 history. True, God sent it as a curse to toiling man — true it maybe that 



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