THE SPEAR-PLUME THISTLE. 107 



advisable to take this opportunity of briefly describing 

 the commoner species of this genus. We must, however, 

 refer, in passing, to the milk thistle (Car duns marianus), a 

 plant which is by no means common, but which may be 

 at times found, and which is so strikingly beautiful that 

 we cannot well pass it by unmentioned. It may at once 

 be known by the large white veins which reticulate 

 so conspicuously over its glossy dark green leaves ; the 

 flowers, too, are very large and handsome in form and 

 colour. 



There are thirteen or fourteen indigenous species of 

 thistle, but it would be impossible to convey a true idea of 

 their peculiarities by a mere description, without going 

 into technicalities that would be quite beyond our present 

 scope. A further difficulty in indentifying the various 

 species is found in the fact that besides the recognised 

 specific forms, many of the species hybridise freely, and 

 thus a series of intermediate forms of more or less per- 

 manence and distinctness of character is created. The 

 only other species which we need here refer to are the 

 marsh thistle and the dwarf thistle, both sufficiently dis- 

 tinctive forms to render our remarks intelligible and, we 

 trust, serviceable. 



The marsh-thistle, C. palnstris (Lat. palus, a marsh), 

 throws up a long stiff stem ; it is scarcely branched at all, 

 and is often from five to six feet high. These stems bristle 

 throughout their entire length with closely-set and peculiarly 

 pointed spines. The leaves are narrow and long, much 

 narrower in proportion to their length than those of the 

 spear-plume thistle, and run for a considerable distance down 

 the stem. The flower-heads are small in themselves, but are 

 grouped together into large clusters, a feature that tends 



