THISTLE. This term, as generally employed, is of vague application, being given to almost any herbaceous plant that is of a spiny character. More strictly, it is applied to the species of Carduus. These are Composite herbs tam), and there he was received into the house of the with very spiny leaves, and similar bracts surrounding a Orientalist Von Dietz. He was introduced to Pietistic head of purplish-white, tubular, 5-parted flowers seated on circles in Berlin, and came specially under the influence of a pitted and hairy receptacle. The anthers have append- Baron Von Kottwitz, who became his "spiritual father," and ages both at the apex and at the base. The style has a of the historian Neander. Before deciding on the career ring of hairs at the point of bifurcation of the two stig- of theological professor, he had in view that of a missionary mata. The fruit is surmounted by a tuft of silky white in the East. Meanwhile he was feeling the influence to hairs. The species are numerous, and some are of great a certain degree of the romantic school, and of Schleierbeauty, though not unnaturally looked on with disfavour macher and Hegel too, though he never sounded the by the farmer. The Cotton Thistle, remarkable for its depths of their systems. At length, in his twenty-first year, covering of white down, is Onopordon Acanthium ; the he finally decided to adopt the academical calling. From Blessed Thistle is Carduus benedictus ; the Holy Thistle, December 1820 to April 1826 he was " privat-docent " the leaves of which are spotted with white, is C. Mari- and " prof. extraordinarius " of theology in Berlin, though anus. The common C. lanceolatus seems to be the most he was at the same time most active in the work of home suitable prototype for the Scotch Thistle, though that and foreign missions. He lectured on the OM and New honour is also conferred on Onopordon Acanthium, the Testaments, theology, apologetics, and the history of the cotton thistle, a doubtful native, and on other species. church in the 18th century. The first fruit of his Oriental The great objection to thistles from an agricultural point studies and his introduction to his profession was his work of view resides in the freedom with which they produce Ssufismus, sive Theosophia Persarum Pantheistica (1821) ; seed, and in the vigour of their underground growth, which following the same line of study he published Bliitenmakes their uprooting a matter of difficulty. Partial up- sammlung aus der morgenliindischen Alystik (1825) and rooting may indeed, in the case of the perennial species, Speculative Trinitiitslehre des spiiteren Orients (1826). His increase the mischief, for each fragment left behind may well-known essay on the nature and moral influence of grow into a distinct plant. Annual species might be kept heathenism (1822) was published by Neander, with high in check were they cut down before the flowers appear, but commendation, in his Denkwardigkeiten ; and his Corn-unless all the cultivators in a particular district co-operate mentary on the Epistle to the Romans (1824) secured him the efforts of individuals are of little avail. The Globe a foremost. place amongst the most suggestive, if not the Artichoke and Cardoon are very near allies of the thistles. most accurate, Biblical interpreters of that time. An-The Safflower, Carthamus, another thistle, yields a service- other work, which was soon translated into all the prinable dye ; the Burdock, Arctium lappa, has an edible root ; cipal European languages, Die Lehre von der Sande and and numerous allied species have medicinal properties. von Tersohner (1823), the outcome of his own religious