The Harmas 



whose spikes are strong as nails. Above it, 

 towers the Illyrian cotton-thistle, whose 

 straight and solitary stalk soars to a height of 

 three to six feet and ends in large pink tufts. 

 Its armour hardly yields before that of the 

 oyster-plant. Nor must we forget the lesser 

 thistle-tribe, with first of all, the prickly or 

 'cruel' thistle, which is so well armed that the 

 plant-collector knows not where to grasp it; 

 next, the spear-thistle, with its ample foliage, 

 ending each of its veins with a spear-head; 

 lastly, the black knap-weed, which gathers it- 

 self into a spiky knot. In among these, in long 

 lines armed with hooks, the shoots of the blue 

 dewberry creep along the ground. To visit the 

 prickly thicket when the Wasp goes forag- 

 ing, you must wear boots that come to mid-leg 

 or else resign yourself to a smarting in the 

 calves. As long as the ground retains a few 

 remnants of the vernal rains, this rude vegeta- 

 tion does not lack a certain charm, when the 

 pyramids of the oyster-plant and the slender 

 branches of the cotton-thistle rise above the 

 wide carpet formed by the yellow-flowered 

 centaury saffron heads; but let the droughts 

 of summer come and we see but a desolate 

 waste, which the flame of a match would set 

 ablaze from one end to the other. Such is, or 



17 



