COMPOUND FLOWERS 



155 



and consider it as a dietetic vegetable. It appears, from some lines in 

 Erowne's Pastorals, to have been formerly so regarded here : — 



" With a right willing hand, she gave me thence 

 The stoniacke's comforter, the pleasing quince ; 

 And, for the chiefest cherisher, she lent 

 The royal Thistle's milky nourishment." 



The expressed juice, as well as a decoction of the astringent root of this 

 Thistle, has been used in medicine with good effect. The seeds are oily. 

 M. Durand states, as the result of his frequent experiments, that twenty-two 

 pounds of the Thistle-heads yield twelve pounds of seeds, from which three 

 pounds of oil fit for burning may be expressed by the aid of heat. 



The following poem was written by H. G. Adams, for this volume : — 



THE THISTLE. 



" Of a proud and ancient family, 



Of a vigorous old stock, 

 Is the stout and sturdy Thistle, 



Which bides the tempest's shock ; 

 Which, when the wild blast sweeps the 

 hill, 



And the ton-ent ploughs the vale. 

 Right steadily abideth still, 



And never turneth pale, 

 But saith, ' No elemental power 



Against me shall prevail !' 



" Would you see the Thistle in its strength, 



And view it in its pride, 

 Go where the summer sunshine steeps 



The moor and mountain side. 

 Go where the hoary ruin nods, 



And the grey cairn lifts its head, 

 And the Gael lays him down to sleep 



Upon a heathery bed. 

 With his nation's emblem at his feet. 



And the bine sky overhead. 



' • To read the Thistle's pedigree, 



Your backward glances cast ; 

 For it stretches far and far away 



Into the misty past, 

 Beyond all ancient history, 



'To the dawn of earthly time, 

 Where the golden fruits of Paradise 



Gleam in the dewy prime : 

 Alas, that even there we read 



Of human woe and crime ! 



" Would you ask whence came the Tliistle, 



And when it first unfurl'd 

 Its crimson banner on the hills, 



Defying all the world ? 

 It came in with the Conqueror — 



But that Conqueror's name was Death. 

 When man through disobedience fell. 



And first knew failing breath ; 

 Then Thistles grew about his path , 



And thorns his feet beneath. 



" A blazonment the Thistle hath, 



A motto proud it bears, 

 ' Xoli me tangere ' the words — 



Touch me the man who dares ! 

 But for all its vaunting, it full oft 



Is taken by the beard. 

 By the horny hand of toil that ne'er 



Its family hath fear'd ; 

 And the ploughshare rends its stalwart 

 frame. 



When the fallow lands are clear'd. 



" Yet soon again it springeth up. 



Displays its crimson crown. 

 And spreads abroad its progeny 



In clouds of seeded down. 

 They gather here, they gather there, 



Thuy root them in the earth ; 

 Anon rough leaves and prickly stems 



O'er all the land have birth, 

 And they grow and thrive exceedingly, 



Careless of drought and dearth. 



" Full many a relative hath he, 



This plant of old renown — 

 Some, dwellers in the wilderness. 



Some, by the busy town. 

 The traveller meets them everywhere, 



And blesseth God the while, 

 Who giveth beauty with the curse, 



And sanctifieth toil. 

 And maketh even the dreary waste 



Like a fair garden smile." 



Various alterations in the nomenclature of the Thistles have occurred ; 

 and the Gentle Thistle, Asses' Thistle, Fish Thistle, Cursed Thistle, Cruel 

 Thistle, Friars'-crown, Thistle upon Thistle, and other well-known plants 

 of other days, cannot now be exactly identified. Almost all our common 

 Thistles belong to the genera Carduus and Cnicus. The receptacle of the 



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