106 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



botanical classification. The generic name is derived from a 

 Greek verb, signifying- to pierce or wound, and is sufficiently 

 expressive of the prickly character of the plants. It may 

 be good policy to grasp your nettle boldly, but the thistle 

 seems to necessitate another treatment altogether, or a 

 sharp repentance of a step too rashly bold will give marked 

 emphasis to the point of the derivation. The specific name, 

 signifying like a lance-head, is bestowed on the plant from 

 the form of its foliage. Its familiar English name was no 

 doubt given to it from its sturdy upright growth and the 

 sharp points with which it is armed, while the tufted 

 crimson-purple blossoms with which it is crowned may not 

 inaptly represent the warrior's plume. 



The plant is a biennial. Its stems are stout and 

 strong, and attain to a height of some three or four 

 feet. The leaves, as we have seen, are lanceolate in 

 shape, deeply cut, each lobe terminating in a long and 

 very acute prickle. The leaves are on their upper sur- 

 face of a rather dark green colour and covered with spinous 

 hairs, while the lower surface is lighter in colour and 

 covered with a downy or cottony substance. Like those 

 of the nodding thistle or the comfrey, the leaves of 

 the spear-plume are continued some distance down the 

 stem from which they spring. The flower-heads stand 

 singly (in some species of thistle, as in the marsh thistle, 

 Cnicus paliistris, they grow in a dense cluster), and are 

 large and conspicuous. Like all the other thistles, the 

 flowers are succeeded by the feathery seeds, which, when 

 ripe, are wafted on the breeze over the whole country side. 

 The various species of thistle not unfrequently vary from 

 the normal colour of their flowers to pure white, and to 

 this the spear-plume is no exception. It may perhaps be 



