ed upon by the cattle, and can hardly
be blamed if it chuckles a little to itself as the greedy creatures pass
it by untouched. School-girls and botanists break down the golden-rods
and asters, and pull up the gerardias and ladies'-tresses; but neither
school-girl nor collector often troubles the thistle. It opens its
gorgeous blossoms and ripens its feathery fruit unmolested. Truly it is
a great thing to wear an armor of prickles!

"The human nature of plants,"--have I any reader so innocent as not to
feel at this moment the appropriateness of the phrase? Can there be one
so favored as not to have some unmistakable thistles among his Christian
townsmen and acquaintance? Nay, we all know them. They are the more
easily discovered for standing always a little by themselves. They
escape many slight inconveniences under which more amiable people
suffer. Whoever finds himself in a hard place goes not to them for
assistance. They are recognized afar as persons to be let alone. Yet
they, too, like their floral representatives, have a good side. If they
do not give help, they seldom ask it. Once a year they may actually "do
a handsome thing," as the common expression is; but they cannot put off
their own nature; their very generosity pricks the hand that receives
it, and when old Time cuts them down with his scythe (what should we do
without this famous husbandman, unkindly as we talk of him?) there will
be no great mourning.

Is it then an unpardonable misdemeanor for a plant to defend itself
against attack and extermination? Has the duty of non-resistance no
exceptions nor abatements in the vegetable kingdom? That would be indeed
a hard saying; for what would become of our universal favorite, the
rose? On this point there may be room for a diversity of opinion; but
for one, I cannot wish the wild rose disarmed, lest, through the
recklessness of its admirers, what is now one of the commonest of our
wayside ornaments should grow to be a rarity. I esteem the rose a
patrician, and fairly entitled to patrician manners. As every one sees,
people in high station, especially if they chance to possess attractive
social qualities, are of necessity compelled to discountenance
everything like careless familiarity, even from those with whom they may
formerly have been most intimate. They must always stand more or less
upon ceremony, and never be handled without gloves. So it is with the
queen of flowers. Its thorns not only serve it as a