THE TRUE NATIONAL EMBLEM. 253 



that it is to some extent poisonous, for, from the moment one 



pierces the flesh till its expulsion by suppuration of the part, the 



pain is keen and excruciating beyond conception. Barefooted 



Dane, Saxon, or Celt, unexpectedly treading on a nearly ripe and 



full-formed Cnicus, might well be excused an oath, however lusty 



and loud, in acknowledgment and hearty execration of such an 



impediment. We can say something of a Cnicus spike wound from 



personal experience. Several years ago, when we were younger 



and lighter than we are to-day, we were vaulting over a wall 



that divided an infield of corn from an outfield of old pasture. 



Safely over, but alighting awkwardly, we slipped forward and fell, 



instinctively stretching out our hands to secure ourselves as we 



came almost headlong to the ground. The faU was nothing, but 



one of our hands had, as ill-luck would have it, alighted, with all 



our weight upon it, in the very bosom of a full-armed, irate 



Cnicus. The palm of the hand somehow escaped, but one of the 



prickles entered our wrist, and the pain was at once intense — 



stinging, sharp, and burning, as if the spike was the point of a 



red-hot needle from the fiie. It could not be extracted, for it 



could not be seen ; and there was nothing for it but patience and 



such local applications as might best aid the inevitable suppuration 



by which alone, after fourteen days' acute pain, relief was finally 



obtained. Upon the whole, then, and keeping the barefooted 



Danish scout tradition in view, we are disposed to consider the 



stemless Cnicus as the true national emblem. If there be any 



doubt, the honour, at all events, must be left between itself and 



the burly, big-stemmed Marianus. Of a certainty, in any case, 



the cotton thistle (Onopordon aeanthium), though frequently 



spoken of by horticulturists and amateur gardeners as the Scotch 



thistle, cannot be the species indicated, for this last is not 



properly a Scotch plant at all, it being rarely, if ever, found 



growing wild anywhere north of the Tweed, though comparatively 



