44 FAMILIAR WLLlJ FLOWERS. 



to our kitchen-garden. Pliny tells us " It is not thought 

 worth while to boil it, the cooking of it being so exceed- 

 ingly troublesome, it is said." This leaves " us in a very 

 vague state of mind as to whether the people who disliked 

 the trouble of cooking it discarded it in consequence or 

 ate it raw. If we may at all judge their feelings by our 

 own they probably adopted the former course. Culpepper 

 says of the mi Ik- thistle, " It cleanseth the blood exceed- 

 ingly ; and in spring, if you please to boil the tender 

 plant (but cut off the prickles unless you have a mind to 

 choak yourself), it will change your blood as the season 

 changeth, and that is the way to be safe." "Westmacott, 

 too, writing in the year 1694, .thus sings its praises and 

 laments " the good old times " : " It is a Friend to the 

 Liver and Blood : the Prickles cut off, they were formerly 

 used to be boiled in the Spring and eaten with other 

 Herbs ; but as the World decays, so doth the Use of good 

 old things, and others more delicate and less virtuous 

 brought in." 



