HABITS AND LATIN NAMES OF BRITISH PLANTS. 425 
wafted by the wind, fix and vegetate thereon. Under the shelter of this, other 
vegetables appear, and the whole soon becomes fertile. The flowers, like those 
of the Artichoke, have the property of curdling milk. 
Carduus arvensis , Creeping Thistle, Way Thistle.—Is is said to yield a very 
pure vegetable alkali when burnt, suitable either for bleaching linen or the 
manufacture of glass. The down of the various species is sometimes used as a 
material in making paper. Flocks of Goldfinches, the united produce of the 
Summer months, throughout October may be observed sporting and glistening in 
the sunny beam, aiding the breeze of Autumn in scattering the down (the 
proverbially “ light as Thistle-down”), as they busily pick out the seeds for 
their favourite repast. The Painted Lady ( Cynthia Cardui) and the Thistle 
Ermine-moth feed upon it; the woody galls observable on these plants are 
occasioned by the two-winged Flies Tephritis Cardui, 
Carex. —From v.ugu, to abrade, on account of its roughness. 
Carex paniculata, Great Panicled Carex or Sedge.— Ray, and others who have 
accurately observed this species, remark that it forms large dense tufts, like those 
of Rushes, safely to be walked upon, which is not the case with some of the 
other species. By this mode of growth it gradually changes the most rotten bogs 
into profitable meadows, capable at length of producing better herbage. 
Carex stricta, Straight-leaved Carex or Sedge.—Mr. Davall observes that 
this plant, by means of its matted roots, forms islands in the Swiss pools or lakes, 
probably like the tufts of C. ccespitosa ,* on a large scale. 
Carlina. —The same as Carolina, said to have been indicated to the Emperor 
Charlemagne (or as some authors have it to Carolus, Charles the Great), by 
an angel, for the cure of his army afflicted by the plague. 
Carlina vulgaris, Common Carline Thistle.—The flowers expand in dry, and 
close in moist weather; and as they retain this property for a long time, they 
may be employed as hygrometers. The divergent tuft with which the seeds are 
crowned, and by which they are wafted through the air, did not escape the notice 
of Ossian, who, like other genuine poets, was an accurate observer of the most 
trivial phenomena, and who fancifully describes the “ zephyrs sporting on the 
plain, pursuing the Thistle’s beard.” 
Carpinus. — Kapnrms> from fruit, on account of its abundance in fruit; 
or from car, wood, and pin, a head, in Celtic ; it having been the wood employed 
to make the yokes of oxen. 
Carpinus betulus, Horn-beam or Hard-beam (Witch orWych Hasel of Essex). 
—Hornbeam loves a poor stiff soil, on the sides of hills, is easily transplanted, 
* Carex ccespitosa is well known in Sweden for its singular property of filling up boggy ground, 
changing it eventually to green meadow, of which Linnaeus gives a remarkable account, FI. 
Suec.) Ed. 2, 383. 
