386 WILD FLOWERS OF BUMMER. 



turn). It has much larger foliage the cut leaflets 

 are placed on either side of a leaf-stalk. The flowers 

 are purplish, sometimes white, and the whole plant 

 has so strong an odour of musk that it is sometimes 

 cultivated for the sake of its fragrance. 



All around, not only on waste places, but on field 

 borders and by the road-sides, is the Thistle tribe 

 found. More than a dozen species claim our atten- 

 tion. Ou dry stony soils the Musk Thistle (Carcluus 

 nutans) will be found. Its solitary purple blossom is 

 really beautiful as it nods on its tall cottony stem in 

 3 uiy. The stem is somewhat winged by the obloDg 

 leaves running down it. The whole plant is prickly, 

 and in the evening gives out a fragrant odour. The 

 Milk Thistle (Car duns marianus) may be distinguished 

 by the white milky veins running down its large leaves. 

 A drop of the Virgin Mary's milk is said, by the old 

 legends, to have caused these white veins. This is 

 sometimes called the Scotch thistle, but the true 

 Scotch thistle is the beautiful Cotton Thistle (Onor- 

 pordon acantliium) . Its spiny leaves, globulous seed- 

 cup, purple plume, tall branched stem, all point to it 

 as the original of that defiant motto which is associated 

 with it. 



