JULY 81 



doubtfully native, though found in a few places. But 

 I suppose the handsomest of all the Thistle family- 

 is the globe artichoke, Cynara scolymus, a native of 

 Southern Europe, grown in England for more than 

 three hundred years, generally in the kitchen-garden; 

 but I have sometimes seen single plants grown on 

 lawns with wonderful effect ; and I well remember 

 that the late Miss Marianne North had one on her 

 lawn at Alderley (I think it is shown in one of the 

 pictures in the North Gallery at Kew), which she had 

 planted in a conspicuous position near the house, as 

 one of the most decorative plants she could place 

 there. I grow, and like for its curious appearance, a 

 thistle that looks very like a dwarf globe artichoke; 

 this is the Carlina acanthoides, with large deep-green 

 leaves lying quite flat on the ground, and in the centre 

 without any visible stem a flower looking very like an 

 artichoke head cut off and dropped among the leaves ; 

 it has not much beauty, but is attractive from its 

 curious appearance. All these thistles, if I may so 

 class them all together, do exceedingly well in a dry 

 year ; the blue ones especially come of a richer and 

 more metallic blue, and the luxuriance of this par- 

 ticular tribe is interesting by helping us to under- 

 stand how it is that the dry desert parts of Eastern 

 countries abound in thorny and prickly plants to the 



