FLORAL CUSTOMS, SUPERSTITIONS, AND HISTORIES. 231 



Many countries and places have been named after the flowers for 

 which they were noted, and most nations have adopted flowers as 

 their national emblems. There is some doubt as to the true Scottish 

 thistle. Tradition affirms that the unhappy and ill-fated Mary, 

 Queen of Scots, planted the beautiful milk thistle on the rocky cliff's 

 near Dumbarton Castle, but this is not regarded as the true Scottish 

 thistle. The cotton thistle is the one cultivated by Scotchmen as the 

 true one, and it appears best entitled to be regarded as the national 

 insignia, on account of the hard and sharp spines with which it is 

 beset, and which so well accord with the proud, defiant motto which 

 accompanies it. The following circumstance is said to have given 

 rise to the adoption of the thistle as the national emblem : — When 

 the Danes were invading Scotland, and, according to their accustomed 

 mode of warfare, were making upon the enemy under cover of the 

 darkness, while the Scottish army were asleep; the Danes had just 

 reached the Scottish camp, when a Dane, happening to place his 

 naked foot upon the sharp spines of a thistle, involuntarily uttered a 

 cry of pain. This roused the slumbering warriors, who soon routed 

 the invaders, and redeemed the country from their hands. 



Buchanan relates, that when the Danes invaded Scotland, the 

 Scots gathered the berries of the deadly nightshade, and mingled the 

 juice with the bread and drink, with which, by their truce, they were 

 to supply the Danes, and which so intoxicated them, that the Scots 

 killed the greater part of Sweno's army while they were asleep. The 

 effects of belladonna, or deadly nightshade, on the human system, 

 are, usually, dilatation of the pupils, obscurity of vision, giddiness, 

 delirium, and sometimes death. It is believed that it was the juice 

 of this plant which produced such remarkable and fatal eiFects upon 

 the Roman soldiers during their retreat from the Parthians. 



Not only have many countries adopted flowers to express their 

 character, but kings and warriors have done the same, as though 

 men were compelled to go to nature for language, when they would 

 express the heroism and devotion with which they felt themselves 

 imbued. Miss Strickland in her elegant and highly-talented work, 

 the " Queens of England," has given an historical explanation of the 

 name of one of our favourite field flowers, the forget-me-not. She 

 says that "the royal adventurer, Henry of Lancaster — the ba- 

 nished and aspiring Lancaster — appears to have been the person who 

 gave to the myosotii arvensiSf or forget-me-not, its emblematical and 



