132 



THE i>YMBOLISM OF FLOWERS. 



body knows, has always been abundantly proved 

 by the national history. Scotsmen have ever been 



Fig. 4, Cactus and Chrysanthemum. 



proud of the thistle, and feel toward the humble 

 plant the sentiment so well expressed by Robert 

 Burns when recalling the rural avocations in which 

 his youth was passed — 



" The rough burr thistle, spreading wide 



Amang the bearded here,* 

 I turned the weedin-heuk aside, 



An' spared the symbol dear. 

 Nae nation, nae station my envy then could raise, 



A Scot still, butf blot still — I kenned nae higher praise." 



It is a moot point amongst botanists and antiqua- 

 ries, which is the true Scotch thistle. Certainly the 

 so-called blessed thistle {Carduus niaria7ins) with its 

 fiat dark green leaves, ornamented by the meander- 

 ing white veins which ancient superstition averred 

 were caused by some drops of milk from the bosom 

 of the Madonna falling upon tliem, is the prettiest ; 



Fig. 5. Amaranth and Asphodel. 



but it is not sufficiently prickly to have been the 

 one that lamed the Dane, and Cardials heterophyllus 



if ■ 



* ' ' Bere," barley. 



t " But," without. 



is more generally held to be the veritable plant, and 

 as such is planted in the grounds of the Roval Cal- 

 edonia Asylum on the Caledonia road, London. 



Concerning the matter, Mr. Sowerby, our greatest 

 botanical authority, writes of Onopordon Acanthium, 

 which he denominates the "Scotch thistle :" 



"This thistle is also called the cotton thistle, 

 from its downy appearance. * * * This species 

 is the national emblem of Scotland, and is one of 

 the stiffest and horniest of its race. It is the badge 

 of the Stuarts." 



But elsewhere he observes of the Carduns hete- 

 rophyllus, or melancholy thistle : 



" This thistle is the cluas an fheidh of the High- 

 lander, which is said by some to have been the orig- 

 inal badge of the house of Stuart, instead of the 

 cotton thistle." 



Now the cotton thistle {Onorpordon Acanthium) 

 is not a true this- ^ 

 tie at all, is very 

 rarely found 

 wild there, and is 

 a doubtful n a - 

 five, while the 

 stemless thistle 

 {Carduiis acaulis) 

 is fairly common, 

 and from its pros- 

 trate habit is very 

 likely to have 

 been trodden on 

 by the Danish 

 rover in his noc- 

 turnal attack on the unsuspecting Caledonians. 



The origin of the adoption of the shamrock as the 

 emblem of Ireland is conditionally placed in the 

 century when St. Patrick, the great apostle of Erin, 

 was preaching to the Celts and laying the founda- 

 tion for that wide and early spread of Christianity 

 in the " Green Isle" which caused it to claim the 

 proud distinction of being "the Island of the 

 Saints." It is said that St. Patrick, in order to il- 

 lustrate from nature the theological doctrine of 

 the trinity to his pagan hearers, bent down, and 

 plucking a piece of a shamrock at his feet, held up 

 its tripartite leaf as a symbol of the Almighty three 

 in one. Whether the anecdote be true or false, it is 

 at least a pretty one, and one of those to which the 

 well-known Italian phrase, " Noti e vera e ben tro- 

 vato " (" If it is not true it is cleverly imagined "), 

 emphatically applies. 



Which plant is the veritable shamrock is a matter 

 of even fiercer controversy than the identity of the 

 true Scotch thistle. Sowerby, who has written 



Fig. 6. Primrose. 



