(ftirstum oratliat. Natural Order: Compositer—Aster Family. 
I ELD CIRSIUM ( from the old Greek name), or the True 
Thistle, is the name of this variety, while the general word 
jy : Thistle is a common name for various prickly plants which 
M are widely dispersed and very annoying weeds. The most 
common of these is the Canada Thistle, which is the curse 
^>3 of any land where once established, as every seed is fur¬ 
nished with an airy balloon of its own, to bear it to some 
new, unoccupied district. It also spreads b} r its creeping root. The 
flowers are arranged in small purple heads. There is also a yellow 
variety. When the leaves are a short distance above the ground 
in spring, they are sometimes used as a salad, and the stems may 
be used as a boiled vegetable, if they are first stripped of their skins 
and soaked a short time in water to extract some of the bitterness pervading 
them. The following is the tradition of the adoption of the Thistle as the 
national emblem of Scotland: A bodv of Danes or Norsemen waiting to attack 
the Scots during the silent watches of the night, sent out a few spies to recon¬ 
noitre; these tramped upon some thistles, and. being wounded thereby, uttered such 
furious maledictions as to arouse the Scots, who were thus saved from disaster. 
T T IS breadth of brow, and Roman shape of chin, 
A Squared well with the firm man that reigned within. 
J SHUT the door to face the naked truth, 
^ I stood alone — I faced the truth alone, 
Stripped bare of self-regard, or form, or ruth, 
Till first and last were shown. 
— Campbell. 
I took the perfect balances and weighed; 
No shaking of my hand disturbed the poise: 
Weighed, found it wanting — not a word I said, 
Bnt silent made my choice. 
— Christina G. Rossetti. 
T T IS square-turned joints and strength of limb 
1 A Showed him no carpet knight so trim, 
But in close fight a champion grim, 
In camps a leader sage. 
— Sir Walter Scott. 
I TRUST the frown thy features wear, 
Ere long into a smile will turn; 
I wottld not that a face as fair 
As thine, beloved, should look so stern. 
— Wm. Leggett. 
299 
I 
m 
1 — tXi“ 
