156 COMPOSITE 



larger kinds, and the young shoots of nearly all the species, may be eaten ; 

 and the Romans appear to have used some at table, though the species cannot 

 be ascertained, Carduus being among the Romans the common name for the 

 Thistle tribe. "It occurs," says Beckmann, "among those of weeds, and may 

 then be properly translated by the word Thistle. It, however, often signifies 

 an eatable Thistle ; for Plin}^ took occasion to make use of an insipid piece 

 of raillery when he says, that ' Luxury prepared as food for man what would 

 not be eaten by cattle.' " He adds, that we are informed by Pliny and 

 Apicius that the Carduus was pickled in vinegar ; but it may be the young 

 tops of the Thistle or the artichoke, or even the burdock. "Elsholz," he 

 remarks, in his "G-artenbau," refennng to the cardoon, "says, 'The strong 

 stem of the large burr (Arctium lappa) may be dressed in the same manner, 

 and is not much different in taste.' " The plague- water, so celebrated a 

 remedy of our ancestors in the seventeenth century, is said by Dr. Millingen 

 to have been composed of masterwort, angelica, peony, butter-bur, viper- 

 grass, Virginian snake-roots, rue, rosemary, balm, carduus, water-germander, 

 marigold, dragon's-blood, goat's-rue, and mint, infused in spirits of wine. 



22. Carline Thistle {Carlina). 



Common Carline Thistle (C. vulgaris). ■ — Stem many-flowered, 

 downy ; leaves lanceolate, unequally spinous, and deeply toothed, downy 

 beneath ; root biennial. Wherever we see this plant, we may feel assured 

 that the soil is barren ; and one may bless the great Creator that, barren as 

 it is, some gay flower is yet destined to enliven it, seeming like a gleam of 

 sunshine on a winter's day, or a sudden hope brightening over a brow of 

 care. Many rocky, arid wastes, many dry heaths, or chalky cliffs, or hilly 

 slopes, covered with short grass and bluebells — spots where the lover of wild 

 flowers delights to roam, and on which the memory often lingers — are orna- 

 mented by this prickly thistle. Such spots seem particularly associated with 

 the idea of freedom. The landscape stretches far away, and the i^oaming 

 winds and roving bee seem free as the air which bears them onwards. Scenes 

 like these are just such as the captive in his cell would picture in his longing 

 dreams, and might, as we wander about them, awaken a thought of pity for 

 those who are shut out from all the loveliness of nature. 



Those who are not botanists may at once know the Carline Thistle from 

 all others by its pale yellow flower-head, for all our common Thistle blossoms 

 are of some shade of purple. Indeed, even in this Thistle the florets are 

 purple ; but they are surrounded by yellow, glossy, chaffy rays, which look 

 like an assemblage of petals, but these are, in fact, the inner scales of the 

 flower-cup, and in winter time, when flower and leaf are alike withered, they 

 glisten on the stem like rays of polished silver. Before expansion, as well 

 as during moist weather, these chaffy scales rise up to protect the inner part 

 of the plant from rain and dew. The flower resembles in textiu-e those 

 garden blossoms which we call Everlastings, and will preserve much of its 

 beauty for months after it is gathered. It grows on a cottony stem, about 

 a foot high, and the involucre and leaves are very rigid and thorny. The 

 flowers expand from July to October, and though not unfrequent in England, 

 are rare in Scotland. Either this or some allied species grows in more or 



