THE CARLINA VULGARIS. 195 



shown the same sensitiveness in the circumstances, but in a manner 

 not so immediate, and to a degree less marked and striking. Our 

 companion of that day, who got a thorough drouking, as we say in 

 Scotland, on his way home that afternoon, writes us with some 

 humour that " as he has always had a great regard for potatoes on 

 the table, both mashed and 'balled,' in their 'jackets,' so in future 

 will he, in acknowledgment of their infallibility in the matter of 

 weather changes, view them with respect even in the field." It 

 should be stated, by the way, that this hygrometrical property in 

 the potato plant rapidly diminishes in sensitiveness as the haulm 

 increases in height and strength, as if it felt that when approaching 

 its full growth it could afford very much to disregard such weather 

 changes as are incident to the mid-summer season ; but the reader 

 who has the opportunity may verify all we have said upon the 

 subject for himself. 



Another plant still more remarkable for hygrometric properties is 

 the common carline, or carlen thistle, the Carlina vulgaris of 

 botanists. It is common enough in some districts of Scotland, 

 though those who do not know it already need not be in the least 

 ambitious of the honour of its acquaintance, unless indeed from a 

 purely scientific point of view, for the carline, wherever it appears, 

 is almost always the infallible sign of a poor soil, miserably farmed. 

 The species receives its name of Carlina from an old story that 

 Charlemagne introduced it into Europe on account of some valuable 

 medicinal qualities attributed to it ; its virtues in this respect having 

 been revealed, it was said, to Carolus Magnus by an angel in a 

 vision of the night during the prevalence of a deadly plague. 

 Certain preparations of its roots and leaves were for centuries 

 afterwards held of great virtue in such internal complaints as 

 demanded violent purgatives for their removal ; and to this day it 

 is, we believe, held in great repute by herbalists for the cure of 

 vertigo, headache, and other cerebral diseases. As a weather prog- 



