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 fanciful account of the fitness of the Thistle as the emblem of Scotland in Ruskin's "Proserpina," pp. 135-139. THORNS. (1) _Ariel._ Tooth'd Briers, sharp Furzes, pricking Goss, and Thorns, Which entered their frail skins. _Tempest_, act iv, sc. 1 (180). (2) _Quince._ One must come in with a bush of Thorns and a lanthorn, and say he comes in to disfigure, or to present, the person of Moonshine. _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iii, sc. 1 (60). (3) _Puck._ For Briers and Thorns at their apparel snatch. _Ibid._, act iii, sc. 2 (29). (4) _Prologue._ This man with lanthorn, dog, and bush of Thorn, Presenteth Moonshine. _Ibid._, act v, sc. 1 (136). (5) _Moonshine._ All that I have to say, is to tell you that the lanthorn is the moon; I, the man in the moon; this Thorn-bush, my Thorn-bush; and this dog, my dog. _Ibid._ (261). (6) _Dumain._ But, alack, my hand is sworn Ne'er to pluck thee from thy Thorn. _Love's Labour's Lost_, act iv, sc. 3 (111). (7) _Carlisle._ The woe's to come; the children yet unborn Shall feel this day as sharp to them as Thorn. _Richard II_, act iv, sc. 1 (322). (8) _King Henry._ The care you have of us, To mow down Thorns that would annoy our foot, Is worthy praise. _2nd Henry VI_, act iii, sc. 1 (66). (9) _Gloucester._ And I--like one lost in a Thorny wood, That rends the Thorns and is rent with the Thorns, Seeking a way, and straying from the way. _3rd Henry VI_, act iii, sc. 2 (174). (10) _K. Edward._ Brave followers, yonder stands the Thorny wood. _Ibid._, act v, sc. 4 (67). (11) _K. Edward._ What! can so young a Thorn begin to prick. _Ibid._, act v, sc. 4 (13). (12) _Romeo._ Is love a tender thing? It is too rough, Too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like Thorn.