12 SCROPHULARINE^ 



much confidence might be placed, the details of the cure were listened to 

 with interest, although from past experience the listener well knew how 

 strangely causes and effects were often misunderstood in relations of this 

 kind. All faith in the efficacy of the Eyebright in this case was soon lost, 

 as the narrator proceeded to tell how the patient had been previously stone 

 blind for many years, and had been cured by eating pieces of the Euphrasy, 

 gathered fresh from the neighbouring cliffs. A French botanist who wrote 

 in " L'Encyclopedie des Sciences " remarks, that the virtues of this herb, as a 

 cure for ophthalmia, must be altogether imaginary, because the distilled 

 water of the plant, to which the virtue was ascribed, is absolutely scentless, 

 and is, in fact, simply water, without any medicinal property. The juice, 

 howevei', is apparently useful in some form of ophthalmic complaint ; for we 

 are assured by Professor Kranichfeld that it has been very successfully 

 employed in catarrhal affections of the eye. The plant is a root-parasite. 



4. Yellow Eattle {llhindidhns). 



1. Common Yellow Rattle (B. crista-galli). — Leaves narrow, oblong, 

 tapering to a point, serrated ; flowers in loose spikes ; bracts egg-shaped, 

 deeply serrated ; annual. This is an abundant plant on many damp pastures, 

 though somewhat local. The stem is about a foot or a foot and a half high, 

 often much branched, of pale, yellowish-green, usually speckled with purple. 

 The flowers form a loose spike at its upper portion, having large pointed 

 bracts beneath. They are yellow, and are very small compared to the pale 

 green, shining, inflated calices. As the flowers fall off and the fruit ripens, 

 the loose seeds rattle in their husky cases, and we then discover the aptness 

 of the familiar name of the plant. The crested bracts procured for it the 

 botanic and common appellation of Cock's-comb, which it has also in many 

 European countries besides ours. The Italians call it Cresfa di gallo ; the 

 French, CocrUe des pris ; in G-ermany it is familiaily termed Hahnenkamm, 

 and in Holland Haanekam. It abounds in meadows in the north of Europe ; 

 and the Swedes, Avho call it Stallergrds, regard the rattling of its seeds in the 

 wind as an indication that the season has arrived for gathering in the hay, 

 though on our own meadows the grass is mowed Avhile the Yellow Rattle is 

 in flower. In England it is disliked by the owners of pasture lands, as the 

 cattle, if they do not leave it altogether untouched, yet are not fond of it. 

 In the year 1839, when the author of these pages was visiting a village in 

 Essex, great annoyance was expressed by many owners of pastures at the 

 unusual amount of this plant among the grass. The grass was said by the 

 farmers to be " burned " by the Yellow Rattle, and much inquiry was made 

 both as to the cause of its increase, and also as to the injury which it was 

 considered to do to the meadows. 



In the year 1847, M. Decaisne published, in the Compfes Itendus, his 

 opinion that the injury done to the grass by the Rattle was caused by the 

 parasitic nature of this plant. As British botanists had hitherto considered 

 that we had but one green-leaved parasite, the mistletoe, and that our parasites 

 in general were brown and leafless, this peculiarity had not been suspected 

 in England. M. Decaisne's statements, however, led to experiments in this 

 country, by which it was ascertained that the Yellow Rattle grows on the 



