9G 



FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



coverin- ; in the other variety the one we have illustrated 

 the flower-heads are smaller and clustered three or four 

 together on short stalks, while the leaves are clothed beneath 

 with a woolly or cotton-like covering. This latter variety has 

 been by some botanists dignified with independent specific 

 rank, and called C. crises ; but the two forms run so into 

 each other, and exhibit so many intermediate stages, that it 

 is impossible to recognise any real specific characters. 



The meaning of the generic name Card*** we have 

 already explained in our comments on the other species. The 

 second name, acanthoides, is Greek in its origin, and signifies 

 that the plant is like the acanthus, the resemblance being m 

 the forms of the foliage. The acanthus leaf will be 

 familiar to many of our readers from the great use made o 

 it in Greek and Roman architecture, and in our modern re- 

 productions of their Corinthian and composite capitals. 

 Most undoubted thistle-flowers and foliage appear m a 

 o-ood deal of Gothic work. Examples may be seen at 

 Evreux, Sens, and many other places abroad, and no less 

 o-ood illustrations at home in the fourteenth century-work in 

 our own cathedrals. The field thistle is sometimes called 

 the welted thistle. In Wales it is the Ysgallen grych. 



