S08 HABITS AND LATIN NAMES OP BRITISH PLANTS. 



covered with sand and rendered useless, which might have been prevented by 

 sowing the seeds of this plant. The Dutch have profited by the knowledge of 

 this fact. Queen Elizabeth on this account forbade the extirpation of it. It is 

 planted on some of the flat coasts of Norfolk to repel the sea, and is also suitable 

 to the light lands of that country. Mr. Winch remarks that this plant, together 

 with a few others which seem designed by Nature to bind the loose sands 

 of the sea-shore by their creeping roots, is the means of forming the low 

 round-topped hills, called " Binks," along a considerable part of our northern 

 coast. A legislative enactment, 1742, for the preservation of this plant, extends 

 generally to the north-west coast of England ; but such persons as claimed pre- 

 scriptive right of cutting it on the sea-coast of Cumberland are said to be exempt 

 from its operation. The Scottish parliament likewise protected this plant, 

 together with Elymus arenarius, by a penal statute. 



Anagallis. — The etymology of this word is exceedingly vague. Blanchard 

 derives it from xvx; and yxXXos, a capon ; because it scatters fruitless seed. — 

 Dioscorides from uvxyu, to draw from, because it was anciently used to draw 

 thorns or other substances out of the flesh. Pliny from xvx, and yxXx, milk, 

 because it has the property of coagulating milk ; or from «v«, and yxXXis, a river, 

 in Phrygia, upon whose banks it grew in abundance. Some from yxXXis, the 

 Hyacinth, because it is like it in colour; and some from xyxXXu, to adorn, 

 because it beautifies and adorns hedges and the banks of highways, or from 

 avxysXxu, to laugh ; because, by curing the spleen, it disposes persons to be cheer- 

 ful. The flowers of this genus are elegant, scarlet, blue, or pink. 



Anagallis arvensis, Scarlet Pimpernel, Poor Man's Weather-glass. — It closes 

 on the approach of rain ; and from its susceptibility has acquired the name of 

 Shepherd's or Poor Man's Weather-glass ; nor has this property escaped the 

 observation of the Musce Rusticce — 



" Clos'd is the pink-eyed Pimpernel : 

 'Twill surely rain. I see, with sorrow, 

 Our jaunt must be put off to-morrow." 



" And Pimpernel whose brilliant flow'r 



Closes against the approaching show'r 



Warning the swain to sheltering low'r 



From humid air secure." 



The flowers in finer weather only continue open from about eight, a. m., til 

 towards four, p.m. Hence distinguished by Linn^us as one of the Flora 

 Solares, admissible in constituting the Horologium Flora, the " Herbat horarut 

 indices" of Pliny ; that 



" Trace with mimic art the march of time." 



