T HISTLE. 
(INDEPENDENCE.) 
“The thistle shall bloom on the bed of the brave.” 
Anon. 
S the national emblem of Scotia, the Thistle has been 
celebrated, far and wide, by the many bards of its 
brave people. Some florigraphists have used this symbol of 
independence as the representative of surliness, because the 
motto —Nemo me impune laces sit, “Nobody molests me with 
impunity ”—is combined with the blossom of the thistle in the 
decoration of the Scottish order named after this plant, as, 
indeed, it is in all the national emblems. 
The motto, however, is scarcely so appropriate for this token- 
flower as it would be for some of its well-armed relatives, the 
thistle which is really depicted upon the Scottish badges being 
the Melancholy Thistle, a far less dangerous foe than others 
of the family. There is some little doubt as to how this flower 
was first adopted by the Scottish race, some patriotic authors 
going back to the days of the Piets in order to trace the origin 
of its use, and adducing a romantic legend in proof of the 
antiquity of the custom. Be this as it may, the Plantagenets 
were not prouder of the broom than were the Stuarts of their 
thistle; and princes of the royal house were wont to wear the 
Cluas-au-pheidh, as it is called in Gaelic, with all the respect 
that its presumed antique and honourable history entitled it 
to. The poets of Scotland are ever ready to pay it homage, 
and the following thoroughly characteristic poem, to be found 
in Hogg’s “Jacobite Relics,” is supposed to have been written 
by the Ettrick Shepherd himself : 
“Let them boast of the country gave Patrick his fame, 
Of the land of the ocean and Anglian name, 
With the red blushing roses and shamrock so green; 
