128 COMPOSITE 



indices of the hour of the day, opening at sunrise, and closing at noon. It 

 fiowers from May to July. Bishop Mant says of it : — 



" And goodly now tlie noontide hour, 

 "When from his high meridian tower 

 Tlie sun looks down in majesty. 

 What time about the grassy lea 

 The Goat's-beard, ])rompt his rise to hail 

 With broad expanded disk, in veil 

 Close mantling wraps its yellow head, 

 And goes, as peasants say, to bed." 



This plant in country places is called Noonday Flower, Jack-go-to-bedat- 

 noon, and Star of Jerusalem. 



After flowering, the round ball of pappus is very conspicuous, being larger 

 than that of any other wild flower, concave above, and interwoven ; not 

 white, like that of the dandelion, but of a light brownish colour, and each 

 little shuttlecock-like plume placed on a long stalk. It is to this ball that 

 the plant owes its rustic name of Goat's-beard, which has its synonym in 

 several European countries. Thus the Germans call it Bockshart ; the Dutch, 

 BolcHbaard ; the Italians, Barha di becco ; the Spaniards, Barha cahrmia ; and 

 the French, Sersifi. 



Gerarde says of the Goat's-beard : " The rootes boyled in water until they 

 be tender, and buttered as parsneps and carrots, are a most pleasing and 

 wholesome meate, in delicate taste farre surpassing either parsneps or carrots; 

 which meate procures appetite, warmeth the stomacke, prevaileth greatly in 

 consumptions, and strengtheneth those that have been sicke of a long linger- 

 ing disease." Our species includes the T. inimr and the T. grandiflom of 

 some botanists ; the var. minor, which is the more plentiful in this country, 

 has the involucral bracts twice the length of the rays. The plant grows in 

 meadows and j)astures, and sometimes in hedges. 



2. Purple Goat's-beard, or Salsafy {T. porrifdlius). — Involucre 

 longer than the florets ; flower-stalks thickened upwards ; leaves tapering, 

 slightly broader just above the base, then gradually narrowing to an acute 

 point ; root perennial. This pretty purple species is often seen in gardens, 

 and in the moist meadows of some parts of the kingdom ; but it is local. It 

 is rather a naturalized than a truly wild flower, and is very similar, save in 

 the colour of its blossom, to the common Goat's-beard. The long tapering 

 roots may be much improved by culture; they are mild and sweet, and 

 resemble asparagus in flavour. The plant is still cultivated in France and 

 Germany for these edible roots, and was so in England previously to the 

 introduction into our kitchen-gardens of the Spanish Salsafy {Scwzonera 

 hispanica), which occurred soon after the skirret had been first planted here. 

 The roots of the common Goat's-beard are equally sweet and nutritious, and 

 some old writers preferred them to those of the purple kind. Like the other 

 species, it closes at noonday. 



2. Ox-TONGUE (Hehninihia). 



Bristly Ox-tongue {H. echioldes). — Outer scales of the involucre five in 

 number, large, heart-shaped, with rounded notches at the margin ; stem rough, 

 with stiff hairs seated on tubercles ; lower leaves lanceolate, upper clasping 



