154 PROSERPINA. 



of spiral line. The study, in our fifth plate, of 

 the involucre of the waste-thistle,* is as good an 

 example as I can give of the more subtle and 

 concealed conditions of this structure. 



14. Returning to our present business of nomen- 

 clature, we find the Greek word, ' stemma,' adopted 

 by the Latins, becoming the expression of a growing 

 and hereditary race ; and the branched tree, the 

 natural type, among all nations, of multiplied 

 families. Hence the entire fitness of the word 

 for our present purposes ; as signifying, " a spiral 

 shoot extending itself by branches." But since, 

 unless it is spiral, it is not a stem, and unless 

 it has branches, it is not a stem, we shall still 

 want another word for the sustaining ' sceptre ' of 

 a foxglove, or cowslip. Before determining that, 

 however, we must see what need there may be of 

 one familiar to our ears until lately, although now,. 

 I understand, falling into disuse. 



* Carduus Arvensis. ' Creeping Thistle,' in Sowerby ; why, I 

 cannot conceive, for there is no more creeping in it than in a furze- 

 bush. But it especially haunts foul and neglected ground ; so I keep 

 the Latin name, translating ' Waste-Thistle.' I could not show the 

 variety of the curves of the involucre without enlarging ; and if, on 

 this much increased scale, I had tried to draw the flower, it would 

 have taken Mr. Allen and me a good month's more work. And I 

 had no more a month than a life, to spare : so the action only of 

 the spreading flower is indicated, but the involucre drawn with pre- 

 cision. 



