_Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iv, sc. 1 (10).

Thistle is the old English name for a large family of plants occurring
chiefly in Europe and Asia, of which we have fourteen species in Great
Britain, arranged under the botanical families of Carlina, Carduus, and
Onopordon. It is the recognized symbol of untidiness and carelessness,
being found not so much in barren ground as in good ground not properly
cared for. So good a proof of a rich soil does the Thistle give, that a
saying is attributed to a blind man who was choosing a piece of
land--"Take me to a Thistle;" and Tusser says--

"Much wetnes, hog-rooting, and land out of hart makes Thistles
a number foorthwith to upstart. If Thistles so growing proove
lustie and long, It signifieth land to be hartie and strong."

_October's Husbandry_ (13).

If the Thistles were not so common, and if we could get rid of the
associations they suggest, there are probably few of our wild plants
that we should more admire: they are stately in their foliage and habit,
and some of their flowers are rich in 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
cannot 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