334 Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers 



The old world knew it as a potent herb in 

 charm-working and in folk-medicine. It was famed 

 in the heraldry of the Middle Ages. And modern 

 science recognizes it as one of the most highly or- 

 ganized of wild flowers, wondrously fitted to fight 

 its own battles and to make friends for itself in 

 the insect world. 



Long, long ago the thistle was sacred to Thor, 

 the Norse god of war and thunder. It must be 

 gathered in silence, and its blossom was supposed 

 to be colored by the lightning from which it de- 

 fended. In English folk-medicine the weed con- 

 tinues to play a creditable part. 



The blessed thistle is so called because it was 

 an antidote to venom. The melancholy thistle, a 

 recently arrived immigrant from the Old World, 

 was a sure cure for that vague but distressful mal- 

 ady, " the blues.'* In rural England the thistle 

 was perhaps it still is used in love divination. 

 " When anxious to ascertain who loved her most," 

 says Thistleton Dyer, " a young woman would take 

 three or four heads of thistles, cut off their points, 

 and assign to each thistle the name of an admirer, 

 laying them under her pillow. On the following 

 morning the thistle which has put forth a fresh 

 sprout will denote the man who loves her most. 



