174 



pubescence. Flowers blue, very small, in simple racemes ; the lowermost flower 

 usually remote, near the base of the raceme ; sometimes, though rarely, in the axil 

 of the leaf from which it springs. Its flower-stalks are remarkably recurved when 

 in fruit, in my specimens. It is probable that this species, in consequence of its 

 early flowering and fugacious nature, may frequently escape notice ; but I am con- 

 vinced that it is not a common plant, as the above station on a sand-bank near 

 Hagley, is the only one in which I have hitherto detected it. The smaller varieties 

 of M. arvensis are probably sometimes confounded with this species ; and judging 

 from the list of synonymes in the English Flora attached to the M. arvensis of 

 its lamented author, which is really this plant, Sir James Smith does not appear to 

 have been exempt from this error. 



8. M. versicolor, Lehm., ( Yellow and Blue Scorpion Grass J. Calyx with 

 spreading hooked bristles, when in fruit oblong, longer than the almost erect 

 pedicels. Limb of the corolla concave, shorter than the exserted tube. 



M. versicolor, Eng. Bot., t. 2558 ; Hook. Scot., p. 67 ; Smith, Eng. Fl, 

 v. i., p. 253 ; Borr. in Hook. Br. Fl., ed. 3, p. 104. M. scorpioides, P>, Huds., 

 p. 78. M. scorpioides, v, Linn., Sp. Plant., p. 189. M. scorpioides hirta minor, 

 Raii Syn., p. 229. 



Dry sandy fields and pastures, on walls, in wet meadows, &c. Common. An- 

 nual ; flowers from April to June. Root fibrous. Stem four to six inches high, 

 branching from the base, clothed with lax whitish hairs, leafy. Flowers upon long- 

 stalked racemes, changing colour from yellow to blue as the spirally-curved summit 

 of the stalk is unfolded. The calyx is very deeply cleft, more than three-fourths 

 of its length, and by no means closed when in fruit, as stated in the British 

 Flora. The succession of blue and yellow flowers is a very curious fact, and one 

 which deserves more investigation than it has yet received ; as the change of 

 colour from yellow to blue is not easily accounted for. There can, however, be 

 little doubt that it really occurs, as an attentive examination of the flowers shews 

 that the upper or younger ones, as Mr. Borrer has remarked, are always yellow, 

 while the lower or older ones are as constantly blue. This plant attains a consi- 

 derable elevation : I have found it growing luxuriantly on the North Hill, Mal- 

 vern, near the summit, (which is about 1400 feet above the level of the sea), and 

 also on the top of Ankerdyne Hill. But, notwithstanding the high authority of 

 the authors of the English and British Floras, I am disposed to think that it is 

 not generally of very common occurrence. It is certainly not frequent in the 

 neighbourhood of Worcester ; and the late Mr. Purton, in his excellent Midland 

 Flora, marks it as rare, giving only the habitat on the Malvern Hills, where I have 

 myself found it. 



The various colours of the flowers and other parts of plants have been 

 supposed to be owing to variations in the degree of oxydation. Light obvi- 

 ously exerts great influence in developing colours : thus the leaves of plants 



