120 FAMILIAR WILL FLOWERS. 



locality for it is in corn-fields, and we remember to have 

 seen a piece of ground that was ostensibly a corn-Held so 

 thickly covered with this thistle that the real crop sank into 

 the second place, not a square yard anywhere all over the 

 field being without its one or more and generally more 

 thistle plants. Such husbandry, or rather lack of hus- 

 bandry, as this is a curse to the whole country-side. The 

 flowers of the creeping thistle are rather a pale purple 

 colour, and have the rich musky fragrance of most of the 

 race. Like all the other species, the flower-heads often vary 

 from purple to pure white, a point that our readers should 

 note, or they may imagine that they have discovered a new 

 species, and be proportionally elated or bothered, when it 

 may very possibly be only one of the very common white- 

 flowering variations from the ordinary types. We have 

 already in our comments on a preceding species referred to 

 the fact that the larva or caterpillar of the beautiful 

 painted lady butterfly, the Cynthia c.ardtii of the entomolo- 

 gist, feeds on various species of thistle, and we now need 

 only add that the present plant is one of those selected. 



