230 POPULAR FIELD BOTANY. 
DipYNAMIA. ANGIOSPERMIA. 
COROLLIFLORZ. SCROPHULARIACER. 
RHINANTHUS. (YeEttow Ratrte.) 
Generic Character. Calyx inflated, four-toothed. Upper lip 
of the corolla compressed laterally, lower one three-lobed. Seed- 
vessel compressed. 
RHINANTHUS CRISTA GALLI. Common Yellow Rattle. A 
handsome plant, very frequent in fields. One or two feet high, 
showing its yellow flower amongst the ripening grass. Leaves 
long, narrow, and cut at the edges. Flowers in loose spikes, 
yellow, with a bractea or leaf under each. The bractea differs 
in shape from the true leaf, bemg broad instead of narrow. 
When the fruit is ripe, the seeds rattle in the large dry seed- 
vessel, whence the English name. In Sweden, when the 
peasant observes this, he knows it is time to cut the grass ; 
but in England the grass is generally ripe first. It is not a 
plant universally found over the country, but too plentiful 
in some places, as the farmer dislikes it, and it yields so 
many seeds that it is not easily eradicated. It has lately 
been discovered that this plant is parasitic on the roots of 
grass. There is another species; but it seems to differ only 
in size. 
