THE THISTLE. 335 



and recover them in a summary way. Persons 

 armed with the written authority of a magistrate 

 may enter on lands to search for thistles without 

 being guilty of a trespass, and are not liable for 

 any damage done unless inflicted unnecessarily and 

 wilfully. Justices are empowered to issue orders 

 for search, and to order the destruction of thistles. 



Of the united species pertaining to the genera 

 Carduus, Cnwus, Onopordum, and Carlma, Great 

 Britain possesses fifteen. These are, the musk- 

 thistle (Carduus nutans); the welted-thistle (G. 

 acantho'ides) ; the slender-flowered-thistle (C. tenui- 

 florus) ; and the milk- thistle (C. maridnus) ; the 

 spear plume-thistle (Cnlcus lanceoldtus); the marsh- 

 thistle (G. palustris') ; the creeping plume-thistle (C. 

 arvensis) ; the bog-thistle (C.Forsteri), which, how- 

 ever, Mr. Borrer suspects to be a hybrid between 

 C. palustris and the meadow plume-thistle (0. pra- 

 tensis) ; the woolly-headed plume-thistle (G. erio- 

 phorus)-, the tuberose plume-thistle (G. tuberosus)-, 

 the melancholy-thistle (G. heterophyllus) ; and the 

 dwarf plume-thistle (G. acdulis). The Onopor- 

 dium, and the Carlwas, each boast but one British 

 species ; viz., the 0. Acanthium, or cotton-thistle ; 

 and the common carline-thistle (G. vulgdris), which 

 is sparingly found in the Isle of Arran, and in Ber- 

 manhead, &c. 



Some of our own thistles are of a most stately 

 and majestic growth ; though we habitually asso- 

 ciate them so closely with the idea of desolation 

 and neglect, that we turn indifferently from the 

 aspect of some dreary hill-side clothed with a mantle 



