JULY. 137 



broom and furze, and even soTnetimes on that 

 of the clover ; it very much injures the plant 

 on which it fixes. On heaths it is very com- 

 mon ; it is one, two, or even three feet high, 

 with a stem as thick as a finger, mthout leaves, 

 but with brown scales. Its flowers grow 

 down about a third of the stem, and are of a 

 dingy purple brown. It has the appearance, 

 on a cursory glance, of being a withered plant. 

 The broom rapes attach themselves particularly 

 to plants wdiich have butterfly shaped blossoms. 



The waste places are now enlivened by the 

 beautiful tribes of thistles, whose minute 

 feathery seeds, flying so lightly on the breeze, 

 seem in sufticient profusion to sow the whole 

 land with their flowers. One cannot help re- 

 marking liow, even when the curse was pro- 

 nounced on Adam, good was mingled with the 

 evil. God said, "Thorns also and thistles 

 shall it bring forth to thee ; in the sweat 

 of thy brow shalt thou eat bread ;" * yet who 

 shall say that toil is an mimixed evil, or that 

 labour brings not an enjoyment with it, when 

 he is the least happy who spends his days in 

 listless idleness ? So even also the thorns bear 

 roses, and the thistle brings forth lovely flowers. 



AVe have more than a dozen species of wild 

 thistle, difficult, however, to describe jiarticularly. 

 One species, the milk thistle, {Canhnis mari- 

 amts,) may be known by its large leaves, 

 chequered with streaks of milky white. This 

 is often called the Scotch thistle, but is not so, 



• Gen. iv. 18,19. 

 E .3 



