52 A BOTANICAL nAMBLE ON THE SEA COAST- 



Linwn angustifolium, or Narrow-leaved Flax, which Murray, in his hand- 

 book of Devon and Cornwall, mentions as growing in this road. At Collaton, 

 instead of pursuing the straight road to Paignton, we turned to the right, 

 and after walking about half-a-mile on the turnpike road, we were induced 

 to turn into a corn-field on the left, attracted by what appeared, or rather 

 what we hoped to be, the Gentaurea cyanus, or Cora Blue Bottle, or Bluecaps, 

 as Clare calls them — 



"Summer's bluecaps blossom 'mid the com," 



rather a scarce flower in this neighbourhood, but which turned out to be 

 the Cichorium Intyhas, (Wild Succory,) which is very plentiful in the vicinity 

 of Paignton. Its flowers are large, blue, and star-shaped; they open about 

 eight in the morning, and close at four, when the sun is declining. Hooker 

 says, "The Egyptians eat a great quantity of this plant." The roots have 

 been used as a substitute for coffee, and the expressed juice is said to be a 

 cure for phthisis. It derives its name from the Arabic "cMlwurychr 



(inwards we went over hedges and ditches, until we espied a quarry on a 

 hill, about two miles from Goodrington, which we turned aside to explore, 

 but met with nothing not previously obtained, except the remains of the 

 Sunguisorha officinalis, (Great Burnet,) named from sanguis — blood, and 

 sorheo — to absorb, from its supposed styptic properties. Leaving the fields, 

 we got into a road which led us to a wood west of Goodringham, near a 

 limekiln, where we gathered a single specimen of Buscus acideatus, (Butchers' 

 Broom,) (the ancient name of which was buscus, from the (.'eltic "bruskelen") 

 or Box Holly. The flowers are very minute, and white or yellowish, and 

 rise from the disk of the evergreen leaves. The berries are red, and make 

 their appearance in winter. It was formerly used as a medicine, but is now 

 rarely, if ever, employed. 



At the end of the wood, we clambered over a wall to the left, to explore 

 a long ditch or drain in a marsh near Goodrington, where we espied, much 

 to our delight, the Dewberry, (^Ruhus cocsias,) a plant often mistaken for the 

 Common Blackberry, (Bubus fnitlcosus,) but the fruit is larger, and the grains 

 fewer in number, with a bluish bloom; leaves ternate, whilst those of the 

 Blackberry are pinnate. Shakespeare mentions the Dewberry in "Midsummer 

 Night's Dream," Act iii.. Scene 1. Titania says, — 



"Be kind and courteous to this gentleman; 

 Hop in his wallcs and gambol in his ejes; 

 Feed him with apricocks and dewberries." 



The commentators on the word do not quite agree as to what it refers. 

 Hawkins says, "Dewberries are strictly and properly the fruit of one of the 

 species of wild Bramble, called the Creeping Bramble; but as they stand 

 here amongst the most delicate fruits, they must be understood to mean 

 Raspberries, which are also of the Bramble kind;" and Henley remarks 

 "Dewberries are Gooseberries, which are still so called in several parts of 



