336 WILD FLOWERS. 



of thistles, all of equal height ; or sadly, from some 

 small neglected corn-field, in which they threaten to 

 overpower the struggling crop. Yet we should find, 

 on examination, that they are plants of extreme 

 beauty, delicacy of proportion, and even grace. How 

 great, how characteristic, a beauty does the autumn 

 landscape derive from even so trifling a thing as the 

 far-floating thistle-down ; those winged seeds, which, 

 in obedience to Nature's command for their uni- 

 versal dissemination, fly forth, in ceaseless silence, 

 on their mission. 



In the words of Thomson ; 



" Wide o'er the thistly lawn as swells the breeze, 

 A whitening shower of vegetable down 

 Amusive floats :" 



and Ossian describes the zephyrs as chasing these 

 "thistle threads" through the air. The venerable 

 naturalist, to whom we have so often referred, de- 

 scribes these "frolicsome and uncertain" dances; 

 most truthfully remarking that, though but "minia- 

 ture traits, they are as essential to the completion 

 of the landscape, as are, to the completion of human 

 happiness, the many little emotions and impressions, 

 the numerous trivial incidents, which separately pass 

 away, almost unfelt and unperceived."* 



Another beauty has the thistle, when every deli- 

 cate hair arrests a dew-drop on a showery April 

 morning ; and when the purple blossom of a road- 

 side thistle turns its face to heaven, and welcomes 

 the wild bee, who lies close upon its flowerets on the 



* Dr. G. Johnston's " Botany of the Eastern Borders." 



