22 FLOWERS OF THE FIELD AND FOREST. 



notwithstanding the humane admiration of our poet for this brist- 

 ling denizen of the pastures,* most people do not care for a very 

 close or intimate acquaintance with it. I may say, however, that 

 among botanists it is spoken of as belonging to the large tribe of 

 composite flowers. The admirable picture by Mr. Sprague tells 

 more of it at a single glance than could be conveyed by pages 

 of description. It is in flower all summer, and may be found, in 

 the latitude of New England and Pennsylvania, as far West as 

 the Mississippi. Though so common, and so obnoxious as a 

 weed, that few ever take any interest in it, it is not to be denied 

 that it possesses a certain kind of attractiveness. In the artist's 

 eye, its rich, red blossom, and its curiously cut and jagged leaves, 

 are not without their elements of beauty. It has been made to 

 serve ornamental if not useful ends, for it was early seized upon 

 by the architect and designer as the basis of much fine orna- 

 mentation both in colors and in carvings. 



Prof. Hulme says: "The Thistle has been largely employed 

 in ornamental art, in some cases clearly for its own inherent 

 beauty; in others as clearly from its heraldic and historic asso- 

 ciations. A very beautiful example of it may be seen in a square 

 panel in the Cathedral of Bruges, and again in the moulding on 

 a tomb of Don Juan II., in that building; in numerous wooden 

 panels (Gothic carvings) in the South Kensington Museum; and 

 on the monument of Mary Queen of Scots, in Westminster 

 Abbey." 



It is best known, perhaps, as the national emblem of Scot- 

 land, but how it came to be such, or what particular species 

 of it first furnished the sturdy Scotchmen with their symbol, 

 is much in dispute among the antiquarians and naturalists. In 



