112 II.OWl-.US Ol.' rUl', COUNMl'.I.DS 



Willi), ("irandnioihcr's XiL^lucap, I'luiii-piuUlini^s, While Kcilnn, Snake's 

 llower, 'rhunder Holts, 'rhunder-tlower. 



Essential Si'KCII'ic Ciiakactkks: — 



48. Lvc/iiiis a/lm. Mill. Stem tail, branched above, leaves ublon^', 

 (.lownv, tlovvers white, h'a^rant at ni^hi, petals 2-clcit, calyx-teeth 

 linear, capsule conical. 



Corn Cockle (L\chnis C.ithai^o, .Scop.) 



As \el the Corn Cockle has not been met with in any (ilacial or 

 other early deposits. It is tonnd in the Temperate Zone in Kuroi)e, 

 Siberia, Western Asia, as far as Persia. it has been introduced into 

 the United States. In every conniy of Creat Britain will you find this 

 plant except Mid Lanes, Stirling, Mid Perth, Westerness, Main 

 Argyle, East and West Sutherland. Caithness, Hebrides, Shetlands. 

 It was considered to be a colonist by W^atson. 



A district without Corn Cockles is as bad as one in which Red 

 Campion is absent. P)Oth are well-known country lavourites. Put 

 while the last is found only on uncultivated ground, the Corn Cockle 

 is essentially a follower of the plough, and is .seldom found but in 

 cornfields. P>ut the seeds which are reaped with the corn when ripe 

 get amongst fowl corn, being sifted into the offal or winnowing, and 

 commonly appear in poultry runs, having been used for poultry corn. 



The Corn Cockle is a rigid, tall, slender, repeatedly dividing, 

 hollow-stemmed plant, very hairy, with swollen joints. The leaves 

 are oblong, narrowly elliptic, keeled, at the base united, hairy both 

 sides, with the longest hairs at the base. 



The flowers are purple, they are not crowned and enclosed by 

 longer linear green sepals, the petals being entire, and with long- 

 claws or stalks and with no scale on the blade. The flowers are 

 single on long stalks. The capsule is 5-toothed, and the seeds have 

 a shagreen surface, and are large, black, wedge-shaped or kidney- 

 shaped with rows of j)oints, the capsule being as large as an 

 acorn. 



The Corn Cockle is often 3 ft. in height. It fiowers from June 

 to July, and is an annual. 



The nectaries are situated, as in Diaiitliiis, at the bottom of a long, 

 narrow tube, and from the ])ositi(jn of the honey the fiower is adapted 

 to pollination by long-tongued Lepidoptera. The anthers ripen first, 

 the stigma later, but occasionally together. In the order of develop- 

 ment of the anthers (in some flowers there are no stamens) it resembles 



