79 
ON THE HABITS AND PECULIARITIES OE BRITISH PLANTS, 
AND ON THE DERIVATIONS OF THEIR LATIN NAMES. 
By T. B. Hall. 
(Continued from p. 31.) 
Clinopodium.— KA/Wo^ov ; from aXm, a bed, and ntov *, a foot ; the flowers 
growing in whorls, resembling the ancient turned feet of bedsteads. 
Cnicus. —Named from xvify, to prick or wound. 
Cnicus acaulis, Dwarf Thistle.—It kills all plants which grow beneath it, 
whence it is very injurious in meadows. However entertaining to the eye of the 
poet, when 
“ Wide o'er the thistly lawn as swells the breeze, 
A. whitening shower of vegetable down 
Amusive floats,” 
to the agriculturist this plant ever appears one of the most pernicious of weeds, 
which ought not to be tolerated even on the borders of fields, or waste places. 
When cultivated in the fertile soil of a garden, it acquires a stem three or four 
inches in height, bearing three or four flowers. The most unwelcome weeds may 
be proved not only to be essential to stimulate the requisite exertion of Man, but, 
in a certain degree, to be indirectly conducive even to his sustenance, by supply¬ 
ing food to numerous tribes of insects, which again tend to the support of 
other animals, as birds, &c., on which he partially depends. 
Cnicus eriophorus , Woolly-headed Thistle, Friars-crown.—According to 
Miller, one or two of these plants may be allowed a place in some abject part of 
the garden for its singularity. Upon the disc of this, and other late-flowering 
Thistles, may frequently be observed, with vital energies all but extinct, the 
torpid Humble Bee resolved to die upon his crimson couch. 
Cnicus heterophyllus , Melancholy Thistle.—The Thistle has long been ac¬ 
counted the emblem of Scotland, as the Rose is symbolical of England, the Sham¬ 
rock of Ireland. This species in particular has been deemed the badge of the 
house of Stuart, whose princes were wont to wear the Cluas-an-fheidh in their 
crown or bonnet. It is, indeed, as the token flower of resistance, far less illus¬ 
trative of the national motto, “ Nemo me impune lacessit” than several of its 
congeners. 
Cnicus palustris, Marsh Thistle.—This and almost all the other species may 
be eaten, like Burdock, before the flowers are formed. Thistles in general can 
only be considered as noxious weeds, to be eradicated by all possible means ; and 
for this purpose a new method has been lately suggested, which, though at first 
view, on a broad scale, apparently little less whimsical than that of catching 
birds by putting salt on their tails, has been thought worthy of attention by 
