The Bear Larinus 
the three foregoing species and more simply 
clad. She is sprinkled with small yellow- 
ochre spots on a black ground. 
Her most sumptous establishment, as far 
as I know, is a majestic horror to which the 
botanists have given the very expressive name 
of the prickly thistle (Cirsium ferox, D.C.). 
The moorlands of Provence have nothing in 
their flora to equal its proud and menacing 
aspect. 
In August this fierce-looking plant raises 
its voluminous white tufts and with its lofty 
stature overtops the blue-green clumps of 
the lavender, that lover of stony wastes. 
Spread in a rosette on the level of the soil, 
the root-leaves, slashed into two series of 
narrow strips, call to mind the backbones of 
a heap of big fish burnt up by the sun. 
These strips are split into two divergent 
halves, of which one points upwards and the 
other downwards, as though to threaten the 
passer-by from every angle. The whole 
thing, from top to bottom, is a formidable 
arsenal, a trophy of prickles, of pointed nails, 
of arrow-heads sharper than needles. 
What is the use of this savage panoply? 
Its discordance with the usual vegetation 
67 
