innocent gold.

And who shall tell us how they grow; and the fashion of their rustling
pillars--bent, and again erect, at every breeze. Fluted shaft or clustered
pier, how poor of art, beside this grass-shaft--built, first to sustain the
food of men, then to be strewn under their feet!

We must not stay to think of it, yet, or we shall get no farther till
harvest has come and gone again. And having our names of stems now
determined enough, we must in next chapter try a little to understand the
different kinds of them.

The following notes, among many kindly sent me on the subject of Scottish
Heraldry, seem to be the most trustworthy:--

"The earliest known mention of the thistle as the national badge of
Scotland is in the inventory of the effects of James III., who probably
adopted it as an appropriate illustration of the royal motto, _In
defence_.

"Thistles occur on the coins of James IV., Mary, James V., and James
VI.; and on those of James VI. they are for the first time accompanied
by the motto, _Nemo me impune lacesset_.

"A collar of thistles appears on the gold bonnet-pieces of James V. of
1539; and the royal ensigns, as depicted in Sir David Lindsay's
armorial register of 1542, are surrounded by a collar formed entirely
of golden thistles, with an oval badge attached. {152}

"This collar, however, was a mere device until the institution, or as
it is generally but inaccurately called, the revival, of the order of
the Thistle by James VII. (II. of England), which took place on May 29,
1687."

Date of James III.'s reign 1460-1488.

* * * * *

{153}

CHAPTER IX.

OUTSIDE AND IN.

1. The elementary study of methods of growth, given in the following
chapter, has been many years written, (the greater part soon after the
fourth volume of 'Modern Painters'); and ought now to be rewritten
entirely; but having no time to do this, I leave it with only a word or two
of modification, because some truth and clearness of incipient notion will
be conveyed by it to young readers, from which I can afterwards lop the
errors, and into which I can graft the finer facts, better than if I had a
less blunt embryo to begin with.

[Illustration: FIG. 16.]

[Illustration: FIG. 17.]

2. A stem, then, broadly speaking, (I had thus began the old chapter,) is
the channel of communication between the leaf and root; and if the lea