THE THISTLE. 333 



quick short leaps, or anon whirling in great circles 

 over the plain, until caught up in the air to a height 

 of perhaps a hundred feet ; then, falling again to 

 the ground, the rolling ball rushes forwards with 

 the storm-wind, and frequently united with others, 

 like a band of armed men, the huge heap of thistles 

 hooked together by their prickly spines, charges with 

 headlong speed some flying company of wandering 

 Tartar horsemen ; who, not unnaturally, look with 

 superstitious dread at a " thing " which leaps and 

 bounds over the vast level with so unearthly a 

 movement ; stalking onwards, as Kohl expresses it, 

 like a giant in his " seven-leagued boots/'* 



Again, in Australia, we may observe the growing 

 alarm excited by the rapid spread of the milk-thistle 

 (G. maridnus), which, having been accidentally in- 

 troduced by the European settlers, has found the 

 rich and virgin soil most congenial to its require- 

 ments ; for it not only frequently there attains to a 

 height of six or eight feet, but disseminates itself 

 in such a manner that districts of a hundred acres 

 are frequently seen in New South Wales densely 

 covered with this exotic plant. In the same manner 

 the so-called Bathurst burr a Patagonian plant, 

 the hooked seeds of which were carried to the 

 vicinity of Bathurst in the flowing tails and manes 

 of some Patagonian horses imported to that district 

 has literally taken possession of whole districts ; 

 actually approaching so near to the Equator as 

 Brisbane-town (South), which lies in the parallel 

 27 30' S. 



* See Schleiden's "Plant," &c. 



