E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Noli me Tan’gere.
Touch me not. The words Christ used to Mary Magdalene after His resurrection. It is the motto of the Order of the Thistle. A plant of the genus impatiens. The seed vessels consist of one cell in five divisions, and when the seed is ripe each of these, on being touched, suddenly folds itself into a spiral form and leaps from the stalk. (See Darwin: Loves of the Plants, ii. 3.)
