Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Thistle (Cnicus)
Up wi’ the flowers o’ Scotland,
The emblems o’ the free,
Their guardians for a thousand years,
Their guardians still we’ll be.
A foe had better brave the de’il
Within his reeky cell,
Than our thistle’s purple bonnet,
Or bonny heather bell.
Hood—The Flowers of Scotland.
When on the breath of Autumn’s breeze,
From pastures dry and brown,
Goes floating, like an idle thought,
The fair, white thistle-down;
O, then what joy to walk at will,
Upon the golden harvest-hill!
Mary Howitt—Corn-Fields.