The Garden of British Wild Flowers. 309 



so ragged in appearance, that I scarcely like to in- 

 troduce it here. Some unattractive members of the 

 family are so commonly seen wherever we walk 

 abroad, that the greatest care must be made in select- 

 ing garden subjects from it The Hieraciums are in 

 some cases showy and fine plants. Here I will 

 merely mention H. aurantiacum, a neat border 

 plant, and distinct in colour, and pass on to 

 Silybum marianum, the milk thistle ; Carduus 

 eriophorus, a noble thistle, found chiefly in the 

 limestone districts of the south of England — and 

 to the great, woolly, silvery cotton-thistle, or Scotch 

 thistle, as it is often called. These are sure to be 

 useful, especially now, when people are begin- 

 ning more to admire plants of noble or distinct form 

 and habit. Though frequently selected as the 

 thistle of Scotland, the Onopordum is not a native 

 of that country ; so the Scotch thistle is a more 

 dubious vegetable than the Irish shamrock. But, 

 if you search the whole vegetable kingdom, you 

 will not find among plants that are at home in our 

 climate anything more distinct than this Cotton 

 Thistle. A single specimen, standing in the midst 

 or in front of green shrubs, produces a noble effect, 

 and the plant should be in every garden. Easily 

 raised from seed, and once established in a garden, 



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