10 SCROPHULAEINE^ 



attract the wanderer in the field. It is a much-branched herbaceous plant, 

 with a slender stem, about a foot high, and numerous spikes of dull pink 

 flowers, having the floral leaves of a dim pinkish-brown. The hue of these 

 leaves, of the calyx, flowers, and stem, is, in some specimens, pretty nearly 

 uniform, and of dull red, and the plant rarely exhibits any brightness of 

 colour. The blossoms may be seen from July to September. Cattle will not 

 eat it, and are said to abstain from the grass to the distance of some inches 

 from the plant. All the plants of this genus are parasitic upon the roots of 

 other plants. 



The genus Bartsia is associated with the memory of Dr. John Bartsch, a 

 Prussian botanist, and a friend of Linnseus. The great Swedish botanist 

 gave the genus its name, and he also gives an interesting and melancholy 

 narrative of his friend in his " Flora Suecica." Names like these serve 

 among botanists to recall to affectionate memory many persons after whom 

 they were called. Sir Joseph Hooker records the eff'ect on his mind, when 

 in the remote regions of the Himalaya, of finding plants of the genera named 

 respectively after Staunton, Buckland, and Wallich. "Such great names," 

 he observes, "there brought before the traveller's notice, never failed to 

 excite lively and pleasing emotions : it is the ignorant and unfeeling alone 

 who can ridicule the associations of the names of travellers and naturalists 

 with those of animals and plants." 



3. Eyebright {Euphrasia). 



Common Eyebright {E. officinalis). — Leaves egg-shaped, deeply 

 toothed ; flowers axillary, smooth, lobes of the lower lip margined ; annual. 

 We have often remarked that few, save botanists, know the name of the 

 little Eyebright, common as it is on dry meadows, where the grass attains 

 little luxuriance, or on grassy chalky inland slopes, or on clifts frowning over 

 the wide-stretched ocean. It is a pretty little blossom of white hue, its 

 petals marked with lilac, while in some cases a lilac tinge is on the whole 

 flower-, save where it is variegated with a dash of yellow. The stems are 

 from two to six inches high, little branched, and low on the chalk cliff"; but 

 when growing on the better soil of the pasture, it is often much branched, 

 and altogether more luxuriant. It was formerly, in this country, called 

 Euphrosyne, a name significant of joy or pleasure, perhaps because of the 

 elegance of its flower ; perhaps because of the relief believed to be given to 

 the sufferer by its medicinal properties. Our Euphrasy is a corruption of 

 this name, as is also the French Eufrase, and the Italian Eufrasie. The 

 Germans call the plant Aiigentrost, and the Dutch Oogentroost. The little 

 blossoms expand from May to September. 



Botanists who have made a special study of the Eyebright consider that a 

 number of species, very similar, yet with sufficiently distinctive characters, 

 are lumped together under the name of E. officinalis. As these distinctions, 

 however, are of a character not likely to be appreciated by the popular 

 reader, the present editor is content to refer those who desire a closer 

 acquaintance with Eyebright to " A Monograph of the British Species of 

 Euphrasia," contributed to the Journal of Botany, 1897, by Mr. F. Townsend, 

 M.A., r.L.S., who recognises no less than fourteen native species. 



