Locai itifs. — In dry barren pastures, waste ground, fallow fields, and by road- 
sides, on a chalky or gravelly soil. Not uncommon in most parts of England 
and Scotland ; more rare in Wales and Ireland. 
Biennial. — Flowers in Jane, July, and August. 
Root spindle-shaped. Stem from 2 to 3 feet high, upright, 
somewhat branched, solid, angular, cottony, leafy. Leaves alter- 
nate, narrow-oblong, pinnatifid, slightly hairy and cottony, toothed 
and spinous at the margin, decurrent and winging the stem inter- 
ruptedly, the wings sinuated and spinous. Peduncle terminal, 
woolly, 1-flowered. Flowers large and handsome, drooping, of a 
crimson or purplish colour, with a sweet musky scent at all times 
of the day in warm weather. Scales of the Involucrum spear- 
shaped, spreading, often tinged with purple ; outer ones sharply 
spinous, all somewhat leafy. Filaments woolly. Pollen grey, 
globular, set with fine points. Styles bent back towards the side. 
Seeds compressed, polished, marked with dotted lines. Pappus 
minutely rough. — This species is distinguished from other British 
Thistles by the nodding or drooping corolla. 
I observed a white flowered variety of this in a pasture near the 
river Evenlode, between Ashford Mills and Stonesfield, Oxford- 
shire, July 30, 1831. 
The dried flowers of this species of Carduus , and those of Cnicus 
lanceolat.us, are used in some countries for a rennet to curdle milk. 
Many kinds of moths hover over the flowers at night. The down 
or pappus may be used as a material for making paper. 
The seeds of most of the Thistles are a favourite food of small 
birds, particularly of the Goldfinch, (Fringilla Carduelis, Linn.) ; 
and flocks of these charming little creatures may be seen through- 
out the month of October, busy in picking out the seeds, and thus 
aiding the breeze of Autumn in scattering the down, which is, 
when thus divested of the seed, 
" By the faintest zephyr blown 
Through the shining skies.” 
This down, with the seed attached to it, bears a great resemblance to a shuttle- 
cock, and by this admirable mechanism the seeds are transported by the wind to 
a considerable distance from the parent-plant ; a wonderful contrivance in Na- 
ture to disseminate her productions. Of these feathered seeds Sir J.E. Smith 
observes, (Introd. to Bot. ed. 5. p. 247.) “ How little are children aware, as they 
blow away the seeds of Dandelion, or stick Burs in sport upon each other’s 
clothes, that they are fulfilling one of the great ends of Nature !” 
Botanists are undetermined as to the particular species of Thistle, which is 
the genuine emblem of Scotland. Some state, that the common Cotton Thistle, 
Onopordum Acanthium, is cultivated by the Scotch as their true badge ; while 
others give the preference to the Spear-plume Thistle, Cnicus lanceolatus, as 
being the most common bv their way-sides ; but the usual heraldic figure seems 
most like the Musk Thistle, Carduus nutans, a plant frequent on limestone 
soils. The motto used by the Knights of the Thistle, or of St. Andrew, is pe- 
culiarly appropriate to their floral badge, Nemo me impune lacessit ; “ no one 
touches me with impunity or in plain Scotch, “ Ye maun’t meddle wi’ me.” 
See The Nat. Poetical Companion, pp. 64 & 272. 
Few animals will eat the Thistle except the Ass, of which a curious anecdote 
is recorded. Le Brun, a famous painter, born at Paris in 1619, having painted 
a Thistle on the fore-ground of a picture, which he placed in a court to dry, an 
Ass passing through the court, tempted by the sight of the Thistle, began licking 
it till it was wholly effaced. It is said that Le Brun well deserved this high 
compliment from nature ; a compliment infinitely more flattering than all the 
praises bestowed by human connoisseurs. He died in 1690. See Reid’s His- 
torical and Literary Botany, v. ii. p. 151. 
