[a. F. carline, Sp., It. and med.L. carlina, reputed to be for Carolina, from the emperor Karl or Carolus Magnus (Charlemagne)—‘Herba quam Carolinam vocant, quod Magno quondam Carolo divinitus ostensa fuerit, adversus pestiferam luem salutaris’ (Ruelle c. 1525 in Du Cange).]
A genus of Composite plants, closely allied to the thistles, and hence generally called Carline Thistle. The common species (Carlina vulgaris) grows on dry soil, and is conspicuous for the straw-colored, hygrometric involucre that surrounds the dull purple disk of the flower.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, IV. lxvii. 529. Carline Thistel … White Caroline Thistel. Ibid., 530. They call it Carlina, or Carolina, bycause of Charlemaigne Emperour of the Romaynes, vnto whom an Angel first shewed this Thistel, as they say when his armie was striken with the pestilence. Ibid. The roote of Carline boyled in wyne, is very good … against the Sciatica.
1605. Timme, Quersit., III. 177. The rootes of angelica, of the Carline-thistle.
1861. Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., III. 182. Carline-thistle.
1879. Lubbock, Sci. Lect., xi. 36. The heads of the common carline … present a sort of thicket, which must offer an almost impenetrable barrier to ants.
