CROWFOOT TRIBE 19 



occasions been killed l^y feeding on it. M. Bruynon, who tried some experi- 

 ments with it, found that three ounces of its juice killed a dog in three or 

 four minutes. It is in Norfolk called Hunger weed. 



20. Small-flowered Crowfoot (11 jxirvijluras). — Stem prostrate; leaves 

 hairy, three-lobed, and cut ; flower-stalks opposite the leaves ; calyx as long 

 as the petals ; seeds covered with hooked prickles. Annual. This plant is 

 readily known from the other species by its prostrate stem, and little yellow 

 blossoms, which are to be found from May to August, on dry banks in 

 England sparingly, in Ireland rarely, and in the Channel Islands ; but in 

 Scotland it is Jiot known to occur. One or two of its petals arc often 

 wanting. 



6. Mouse-tail (Mi/osiirus). 



Common Mouse-tail (M. minimus). — Stem four to six inches in height ; 

 leaves erect and linear, fleshy ; scapes slender, bearing a small greenish 

 flower. Annual. This little plant, which is found in corn-fields and waste 

 places, especially such as have a gravelly soil, is distinguished from any other 

 British plant, by the arrangement of the ripe carpels into a slender form, 

 resemljling the tail of a mouse, and sometimes two or three inches long. This 

 peculiarity is recognised not only in the scientific and English names, but in 

 most of those by which it is known throughout Europe. In France it is 

 commonly called Queue de Soitris, and it is Das Mauseschivanzchen of the 

 German peasant, the Cola de Baton of the Spaniard, and the Cora di sorcio 

 of the Italian. It is the only British species ; and we have none of the 

 genus in cultivation, but this little plant is known in most of the countries 

 of the Continent. 



7. Globe Flower {Trollim). 



Mountain Globe Flower (7'. europceus). — Calyx of about fifteen 

 concave erect sepals ; petals shorter and narrower than the sepals, nearly as 

 long as the stamens. Plant perennial. This flower is more frequent in 

 gardens than in our country landscape, but it is not uncommon in moun- 

 tainous places in the North of England, as well as Wales and Scotland, 

 flowering in June and July. Its large blossoms are of a delicate yellow, and 

 so globular in form that we wonder not that Conrad Gesner named the genus 

 from trol or irolen, the old German word for a globe. This plant is also 

 called by the Dutch Trolbloem. Some authorities derive the name from Troll, 

 a malignant species of fairy. Our gardeners know it by the name of Globe 

 Ranunculus, or Globe Crowfoot ; and it is the Lucken gowan of the Scotch. 



Our pretty globe flower is paler in colour than the M'ild species of Ranun- 

 culus, and its petals are not glossy like theirs, while the numerous stamens 

 often spread around the centre so as almost to hide the petals. Miller tells 

 us that the Globe FloAvers are gathered in Westmoreland, with great festivity, 

 by youth of both sexes, in the beginning of June, and that it is usual to see 

 them return from the woods of an evening laden with these blossoms, with 

 which they make wreaths and garlands to adorn their hovises. If this 

 custom is still in existence, it will probably soon be extinct, for the old 

 floral usages of our country, the flower-strewings, and the well-dressings, 



3—2 



