142 FLOWERS OF THE ROADSIDES AND HEDGES 
cans, Milk Maid, Miller’s Star, Moon-flower, Moonwort, Owd Lad’s 
Corn, Pick Pocket, Piskies, Pyxie, Shepherd’s Weather Glass, Shirt 
Buttons, Smocks or Smock-frocks, Snakeflower, Snap grackers, Snap 
Jack, Snappers, Snap Stacks, Snapwort, Snow, Snowflake, Star- 
flower, Star of Bethlehem, Starwort, Stichewort, Stitchwort, Thunder- 
flower. 
Such is a fair example of the multiplicity of local names for common 
flowers, which are not without some interest in every case. 
This plant was called Stitchwort because it used to be drunk in 
wine with powdered acorns for pain in the side or the “stitch”. 
It appears to have been called Thunder-flower because the unripe 
capsule contains air, and when pressed goes off with a bang, and 
children are fond of doing this. It was called Allbone on account 
of the jointed stems, or as explained above. The name Lady’s Lint 
may be from the fine threads in the stalks. It is called Devil’s Eye, 
being held in special favour by fairies, and peasants hesitated to pluck 
it in case they were “ pixy-led”. 
The Yellow Underwing hovers over it in daylight in the sunlight. 
EssENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS :— 
55. Stellarza Holostea, L.—Stem erect, slender, rigid, rough, leaves 
sessile, long-keeled, acuminate, grooved, fringed, flowers white, petals 
twice as long as sepals, bifid, capsule globose. 
Perforate St. John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum, L.) 
This common plant has been found in Preglacial beds in Suffolk, 
Interglacial beds in Sussex, and in Neolithic beds in Edinburgh. At 
the present time it is at home in the North Temperate Zone in Arctic 
Europe, North Africa, Siberia, West Asia as far as the Himalayas. 
In the United States, America, it is an introduction. It is generally 
distributed in Great Britain, but it is absent in the counties of Cardigan, 
South Lincs, Stirling, S. Perth, Elgin, Westerness, Mid and N. 
Ebudes, West Sutherland, and the Northern Isles. In Yorkshire it 
grows at a height of 1000 ft. 
The Perforate St. John’s Wort is as familiar a plant along the road- 
side as Herb Robert, the Yellow Vetchling, or Tufted Vetch, or Hedge 
Parsley, Cleavers, and Wood Basil, which commonly grow with it. It 
is generally found near hedges or banks, and the highway is quite gay 
with clumps of its yellow bloom from July to September. 
Many rounded or slightly angular stems arise from the same root 
in this as in other species, giving it a clustered appearance. They are 
