FLOWERING PLANTS. II9 
The patois name of the Burdock, according to Métivier, is 
Botillas, and he adds: ‘Les enfants se jettent, les uns aux autres, 
ses glouterons hamegonnés,’ which recalls the remark of Pandarus in 
Troilus and Cressida, iil. 2: ‘They are burs, I can tell you: they’ll 
stick where they are thrown.’ And again in Measure for Measure, 
iv. 3: ‘I ama kind of bur, I shall stick.’ Elsewhere Shakespeare 
calls the plant Hardock, as in King Lear, iv. 4. In Normandy it is 
called Gloutonnier, but the more general French name is Bardane. 
Arctium intermedium, Lange. 
Native. First found: Andrews, 1goo. 
Rare, or perhaps overlooked as 4. minus. A plant identified as 
belonging to this species was found at Fort George by Mr. C. 
Andrews during the summer of 1900. 
(Arctium nemorosum, Lej., occurs in Alderney.) 
Centaurea nigra, L. Black Knapweed. 
Native. First record: Gosselin, 1815. 
Common throughout the island. The rayed form (C. pradensis, 
Thuill., not the true var. decipiens, though sometimes mistaken for it) 
is generally distributed, but much less common than the type. The 
reverse is the case in Alderney, where the radiant form prevails. 
With cream-coloured flowers (var. fa//ens, Koch.) on the cliffs 
between the Gouffre and the Corbiere (Andrews). 
In the patois called Herbe de Flon, the word flon signifying a 
boil or wen. Under this word, Métivier, in his Dictionnaire Franco- 
WVormand (1870), says: ‘C’est aussi chez nous lerysipéle: et voila 
pourquoi la jacée ( Centaurea nigra) est le mate-felon des anglais, mot 
francais qu’ils tiennent de nous.’ In Normandy this plant is known 
as Zétards, a term corresponding to the local English name, Hard- 
heads, and allied to the patois word /é¢, obstinate. 
Centaurea Cyanus, L. Corn-flower. Blue Bottle. 
Casual. First record: Gosselin, 1815. 
Very rare. A few plants in 1890 in a cultivated field near the 
Vale Road. One or two near Rocques Barrées (1x.) in the same 
year. In 1893 a plant or two in a field near Swansea Villa, Vale. 
This beautiful flower, the Kazser-blume of Germany, is known in 
Normandy by the name of B/ewets, a word allied to our own Blue 
Bottle, both doubtless alluding to the fact that the expressed juice 
of the petals dyes linen a beautiful blue, though the colour is not 
lasting. In the olden days this plant was called Hurt Sickle, because, 
says Gerarde, ‘it hindereth and annoyeth the reapers by dulling and 
turning the edges of their sickles in reaping of corne.’ 
(Centaurea Scabiosa, L., the Great Knapweed, and C. solstitialis, 
the Yellow Star Thistle, are both given in Gosselin’s list, but there 1s 
