+-------------------+-------------+-----------------------------------+ | Name. | Seeds to a | Description. | | |single plant.| | +-------------------+-------------+-----------------------------------+ | Musk thistle | 3,750 | 150 seeds to a single flower-head.| | Spear thistle | 30,000 | 300 seeds to each. | | Corn thistle | 5,000 | This plant also increases by | | | | creeping underground stems. | | Stemless thistle | 600 | This is sometimes so thick on the | | | | downs that we have seen its flying| | | | seeds almost like a snowstorm in | | | | quantity and whiteness. | +-------------------+-------------+-----------------------------------+ Farmers, however, mostly refuse an early summer attack both upon thistles and nettles, quoting the following rustic rhyme for their neglect:— If thistles be cut in April, They appear in a little while; If in May, They peep out the next day; If cut in June, They reappear very soon, If in July, They’ll hardly die; If cut in August, Die they must. The truth is, that with spring-time they will bud forth again, but always in a weakly condition. However, towards August the thistle has performed all its functions for the year, and so prepared its larger rootstocks for the future season; so that he would not be altogether so mad who, in reference to the cutting of thistles and nettles in August and September, should say— Kill a fool’s head of your own; They’ll die of themselves if you let them alone. Beating nettles in the early part of the year with lithe ash sticks is more effectual than the cleaner cut with the scythe, as the injuries are not so easily got over. 4. That there are many plants in pastures which if eaten exclusively would act as poisons we can have but little doubt, but there are a few which would seem to be dangerous, even when partaken of in grass mixtures. Of these, the meadow saffron is one of the most powerful. This plant is abundant on the oolitic rocks of the Cotteswolds, about which range we constantly hear of mischief from it. We extract the following from a Cheltenham paper for September, 1844:—