THORN.] . NATURAL HISTORY. 303 



THE common Thistle, whereof the greatest quantity of 

 down is gathered for divers purposes, as well by the poor 

 to stop pillows, cushions, and beds for want of feathers, 

 as also bought of the rich upholsters to mix with the 

 feathers and down they do sell, which deceit would be 

 looked into. The leaves and roots hereof are a remedy 

 for those that have their bodies drawn backward. 



Gerard's " Herbal," bk. ii. ch. cccclxxvi. 



THE tender leaves of our Lady's Thistle, the prickles 

 taken off, are sometimes used to .be eaten with other 

 herbs. The seeds being drunk are a remedy for infants 

 that have their sinews drawn together, and for those that 

 are bitten of serpents ; and it is thought to drive away 

 serpents, if it be but hanged about the neck. 



ch. cccclxxvti. 



THE root of carline Thistle is an enemy to all manner 

 of poisons ; it doth not only drive away infections of the 

 plague, but also cureth the same, if it be drunk in time. 

 And it is given to those that have been dry-beaten, and 

 fallen from some high place. Ibid., ch. cccclxxxi. 



V. Carduus Benedictus. 



Thorn. 



A THORN is a tree with sharp pricks, and is as it were 

 armed with pricks against wrongs of them that touch it. 

 And properly to speak, the thorn is the prick that groweth 

 out of the thorn or of herbs and trees with pricks, and 

 the prick springeth out of the stock or of the stalk, and is 

 great next to the tree and stalk, and sharp outward at the 

 point. And it is not the intent of kind that trees be sharp 

 with pricks and thorns ; but it happeth and cometh of 

 unfastness and unsadness of the tree, by the which cold 

 humour is drawn that is but little sodden, and is drawn 

 and passeth by pores and holes outward, and is harded by 

 heat of the sun, and made a thorn or a prick, and is 

 made small and sharp at the end for scarcity of matter, 

 and sometime is sharp and somedeal bending, as it fareth 

 in Briers and Roseres [Rose-trees] ; sometime the point is 

 ,-reared upright. Oft growing of thorns is token of 





