THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



223 



A radius crown of rubies scho him gaif, 

 And said, In field go forth, and fend the laif." 



J ames Y. was the first to mark his 

 money with a thistle, and he issued 

 coin of the realm marked with a 

 solitary thistle head, and surrounded 

 by the bold motto " Nemo me impune 

 lacessii" It was not till the succeeding 

 reign that the prickly foliage was 

 added, and the emblem assumed 

 somewhat the form it bears on coins of 

 the present day. 



Curiously enough the actual species 

 which is the type of the national 

 emblem is matter of doubt and contro- 

 versy. Both the cotton thistle (0. 

 acanthium) and the milk thistle (C. 

 Marimm) are rivals for the honour, 

 they are often seduously cultivated by 

 enthusiasts and pointed to with well 

 merited pride as the Scotch thistle. 

 But as neither of tliese are indigenous 

 to the country it would lay the natives 

 open to the sarcasm of Dr. Johnson, 

 who is reported to have said that 

 " nothing grew in Scotland but thistles, 

 and these they cultivated in hothouses." 

 The claims of the musk thistle (C. nu- 

 tans) are supported by various good 

 authorities, some maintaining that 

 only the drooping thistle should re- 

 present A loin, evidently remembering 

 the woes of " puir auld Scotland." 



" Paint Scotland greetin owre her 

 thrissel." 



The pre-eminently handsome flowers 

 of this species would warrant its selec- 



tion for the post of honour, but it is 

 a comparatively rare and scarce plant 

 in Scotland. Some would solve the 

 difficulty by saying that any thistle 

 should serve for the national emblem ; 

 but I prefer to follow the fancy of 

 Burns, who unequivocally points to the 

 bur-thistle (C. lanceolatui) as the gen- 

 uine plant in his esteem : — 



" The rough bur-thistle, spreading wide 



Amang the bearded bear, 

 I turn'd the weeder clips aside, 

 And spared the symbol dear." 



This is admirably truthful to nature, 

 for the biennial bur-thistle would only 

 very rarely escape the vicissitudes of 

 cultivation and survive to blossom 

 amongst the barley, so that its chance 

 appearance would touch the heart of 

 the sympathetic poet. 



The generic name Carduus is the 

 Latin name for a thistle, and philolo- 

 gists derive it from the Celtic ard, a 

 sharp point, appropriately applied to 

 the prickly leaves and spiny involucres 

 of the genus. From the same root 

 comes card, a comb, an instrument 

 with sharp teeth used in the manufac- 

 ture of cloth, a function which the 

 prickly flower-heads of the thistles and 

 teasels are well fitted to perform. The 

 common name thistle is the Anglo- 

 Saxon pistel, from pydan, stab, in 

 allusion to the sharp spines. If this 

 paper has proved prolix to my readers, 

 it must be set down to the perfervidum 

 ingenium Scotorum* 



