220 THE YOUNG 



base of the corolla tube, as is often 

 done in the case of clover and other 

 easily accessible honey reservoirs, and 

 thus rifling them of their luscious 

 contents without any compensating 

 advantage to the plant. When too 

 freely indulged in, the nectar of thistles 

 and knapweeds which are very similar 

 and closely allied plants, seems to have 

 an intoxicating and stupifying effect 

 upon the unwary bees. They may 

 often be seen perfectly helpless clinging 

 desperately to the nodding and swaying 

 blossoms, or sprawling ludicrously on 

 the grass at the base. The flowers of 

 thistles are less or more sensitive to 

 light, during darkness they double up 

 and draw more closely together, whilst 

 they spread out and expand their 

 blossoms to the sun's rays, but as they 

 are not furnished with a spreading ray 

 like the daisy, their devotions to the 

 effulgent God of day are not so 

 noticable. After flowering, the invol- 

 ucre tightly contracts around the 

 shrivelled corollas until the fruit is 

 mature, when it relaxes and allows the 

 seed to sail away on their airy pinions. 



"Who gave the thistle's feathered seed its 

 plumes, 



That, wing-like, waft it on each gentle breeze 

 To sterile yet to it congenial soils, 

 Investing them with purple beauty, rife 

 With fragrant treasures for the wild bee's 

 store." 



The foregoing description is equally 

 applicable to the musk thistle (C. 

 nutans), which closely resembles C, 



NATUBALIST 



lanceolatus in its characters, but is yet 

 abundantly distinct. It is generally 

 distributed, but not nearly so common 

 as the spear thistle ; it prefers a cal- 

 careous soil, and may be met with in 

 dry, stony pastures, old quarries, &c. 

 Its large crimson, purple flowers are 

 remarkably handsome, being borne 

 singly at the extremities of the 

 brandies, and their gracefully nodding 

 'habit distinguishes it from any other. 

 The whole plant has a strong musky 

 odour, from which it derives its com- 

 mon name. Two other of the widely- 

 distributed thistles are so similar in 

 appearance that it requires some ac- 

 quaintance with field botany to readily 

 distinguish them. These two, C. crispus 

 and tenuifloruS) are also dry-loving 

 plants, growing on rubbish heaps, 

 waste ground, and tenuiflorus particu- 

 larly on sandy seashores. They have 

 remarkably tall, slender, branching 

 from the base, spiny stems, with small 

 rose-purple flowers, several growing 

 together, and the prickly involucres 

 cottony. The marsh thistle ( C. palus- 

 iris) is frequent in bogs and swampy 

 pastures; it produces a stout, erect, 

 solitary stem, densely prickly, and 

 often exceeding six feet in height, with 

 numerous branches in the upper por- 

 tion, each bearing clusters of small 

 purple flowers which are often found 

 white. The most common and abun- 

 dant, and the one that is most obnoxi- 

 ous to the farmer, is the field thistle 



