THE CHEEPING THISTLE. 119 



thistle. Well may an old writer break out into the excla- 

 mation, " Thistles are a large generation/' and we cannot 

 but echo his woi'ds, as we find yet another species cropping 

 up in our series. 



" Thistles are a large Generation, distinguished by dif- 

 ferent prenomens and manner of Vegetation, or growth 

 and figure. A sow thistle is called Sonchus ; the white 

 Cotton Thistle is Acanthium ; the soft Thistle Cirsium ; 

 the Globe Thistle is Carduus Globosus; the Fuller's 

 Thistle, or Cloathier's Thistle, or Teazle, is called Carduus 

 Fullonum ; Star Thistle is Carduus Stellatus ; the Cha- 

 meleon Thistle ; these are the chief, which have many re- 

 lated to them, being of little use as yet, especially in 

 physick, because the chiefest sorts mentioned in our Dis- 

 pensatories, and that I shall chiefly insist on, are three, as 

 followeth : Carline Thistle, called Carlia or Carolina, by 

 Charlemain the first Emperor, whose Army was by this 

 Root delivered and preserved from the plague. I forgot 

 to mention before the remarkable Thistle called Marsh 

 Thistle, which grows as tall as a Man/' The foregoing 

 quotation is from the " Historia Vegetabilium Sacra/' 

 or Scripture Herbal, of William Westmacott, "of the 

 Brough of Newcastle-under-Line, in the County of 

 Stafford, physician." The book was published in 1694, 

 "at the King's Arms, next St. Dunstan's Church, in Fleet 

 Street/' within a quarter of a mile of the spot whence the 

 present volume issues. Thistles find a place in this book 

 from their association with thorns in the curse pronounced 

 on the ground after the Fall in Eden. 



The creeping thistle is very abundant by road-sides. 

 Parkinson calls it the Carduus vulgatissinius viarum, while 

 Kay terms it the common way-thistle. Another favourite 



