Thistles

The thistle is a prince. Let any man that has an eye for beauty take a view of the whole plant, and where will he see a more expressive grace and symmetry; and where is there a more kingly flower?
~Henry Ward Beecher

I'll be sharing a Scottish Gaelic poem for Poetry Friday, among others, so might as well share Scotland's national flower for Art Thursday. The motto that goes with the prickly plant is "“Nemo me impune lacessit”, which is “No one harms me without punishment” (or “Wha daurs meddle wi me.”)

A Knight as a Scotch Thistle, 1899
from A Floral Fantasy in an Old English Garden

Coupe Daum, Musée de l'école de Nancy

Bodiaki
by Jan Stanisławski

Detail of lithography plate The Plant
by Anton Seder (1850–1916)

Boar, mastiff, thistle, raspberries, lily, moths and insects
by Wenceslaus Hollar, 1607-1677, engraver

Table Le Rhin, 1889
par Émile Gallé

Extrait de : Les fleurs animées