yellow Thistles of the South of Europe
(_Scolymus_), which besides their beauty have a classical interest.
"Hesiod elegantly describing the time of year, says,

+emos de skolymos t'anthei+,

when the Scolymus flowers, _i.e._, in hot weather or summer ("Op. et
dies," 582). This plant crowned with its golden flowers is abundant
throughout Sicily."--HOGG'S _Classical Plants of Sicily_. There is the
Fish-bone Thistle (_Chamaepeuce diacantha_) from Syria, a very handsome
plant, and, like most of the Thistles, a biennial; but if allowed to
flower and go to seed, it will produce plenty of seedlings for a
succession of years. And there is a grand scarlet Thistle from Mexico,
the Erythrolena conspicua ("Sweet," vol. ii. p. 134), which must be
almost the handsomest of the family, and which was grown in England
fifty years ago, but has been long lost. There are many others that may
deserve a place as ornamental plants, but they find little favour, for
"they are only Thistles."

Any notice of the Thistle would be imperfect without some mention of the
Scotch Thistle. It is the one point in the history of the plant that
protects it from contempt. We dare not despise a plant which is the
honoured badge of our neighbours and relations, the Scotch; which is
ennobled as the symbol of the Order of the Thistle, that claims to be
the most ancient of all our Orders of high honour; and which defies you
to insult it or despise it by its proud mottoes, "Nemo me impune
lacessit," "Ce que Dieu garde, est bien garde." What is the true Scotch
Thistle even the Scotch antiquarians cannot decide, and in the
uncertainty it is perhaps safest to say that no Thistle in particular
can claim the sole honour, but that it extends to every member of the
family that can be found in Scotland.[292:1]

Shakespeare has noticed the love of the bee for the Thistle, and it
seems that it is for other purposes than honey gathering that he finds
the Thistle useful. For "a beauty has the Thistle, when every delicate
hair arrests a dew-drop on a showery April morning, and when the purple
blossom of a roadside Thistle turns its face to Heaven and welcomes the
wild bee, who lies close upon its flowerets on the approach of some
storm cloud until its shadow be past away. For with unerring instinct
the bee well knows that the darkness is but for a moment, and that the
sun will shine out again ere long."--LADY WILKINSON.

FOOTNOTES:

[292:1] See an interesting and