PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
309 
colour, and the Thistledown, which carries the seed far and 
wide, is very beautiful, and was once considered useful as a 
sign of rain, for “ if the down flyeth off Coltsfoot, Dandelyon, 
or Thistles when there is no winde, it is a signe of rain.”—• 
Coles. 
It had still another use in rustic divination— 
<£ Upon the various earth’s embroidered gown, 
There is a weed upon whose head grows down, 
Sow Thistle ’tis y’clept, whose downy wreath 
If anyone can blow off at a breath 
We deem her for a maid.”— Browne’s Brit. Past. i. 4. 
But it is owing to these pretty Thistledowns that the plant 
becomes a most undesirable neighbour, for they carry the seed 
everywhere, and wherever it is 
carried, it soon vegetates, and a 
fine crop of Thistles very quickly 
follows. In this way, if left 
to themselves, the Thistles will 
soon monopolize a large extent 
of country, to the extinction of 
other plants, as they have done 
in parts of the American prairies, 
and as they did in Australia, 
till a most stringent Act of 
Parliament was passed about 
twenty years ago, imposing heavy 
penalties upon all who neglected 
to destroy the Thistles on their 
land. For these reasons we can¬ 
not admit the Thistle into the garden, at least not our native 
Thistles; but there are some foreigners which may well be 
admitted. There are the handsome yellow Thistles of the 
South of Europe ( Scolymus ), which besides their beauty have 
a classical interest. “ Hesiod elegantly describing the time of 
year, says—* 
7//X05 Se (TKoXvfios r avOa, 
