186 ENGLISH BOTANT. 



2 seeds. Plant glabrous or sliglitly puberulent ; the margins of the 

 leaves, bracts, and sepals finely ciliated. 



Common Cow-wheat. 



French, Melampyre des Pres. German, Weisen Wachtelweizen. 



This species is valuable as a food for cattle, though never cultivated in this country 

 for that purpose. Its common name, according to Dr. Prior, comes from the fact that 

 " its seed resembles wheat, but is only fit for cows." Linnaeus says that when cows are 

 fed in fields where the Cow- wheat is abundant, the butter yielded by their milk is 

 peculiarly rich, and of a brilliant yellow colour. There appears to have been an ancient 

 notion among the peasantry that the small seeds were capable of being converted into 

 wheat as they fell ; so sudden a transformation, however, would puzzle even Mr. Darwin 

 to credit or to account for. 



SPECIES lY.— ME LAMP YRUM SYLVATICUM. Linn. 



Plate MV. 



Heich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Yol. XX. Tab. MDCCXXXIY. Fig. 2. 

 Billot, FI. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 1287. 



Bracts green, lanceolate, acute, flat, ascending, shortly stalked, 

 rounded at the base, without teeth, finely ciliated. Mowers 

 sub-erect, in a very lax spikelike raceme. Calyx glabrous ; teeth 

 lanceolate, ciliated, nearly equal, all spreading. Tube of the corolla 

 arched towards the apex, scarcely exceeding the calyx-teeth, three 

 times as long as the open lips. Capsule rather longer than the 

 calyx, with an ovate profile, the curvature on the upper and under 

 sides nearly equal. 



In woods in mountainous districts. Rare. In the North of 

 England and Scotland ; but small specimens of M. pratense have 

 been so often mistaken for M. sylvaticum that it is difficult to fix 

 the precise distribution. Perthshire and Aberdeenshire are the 

 only two counties in which I have gathered it ; but I have seen 

 specimens from Yorkshire, Dumbartonshire, and Forfarshire, and 

 Mr. H. C. Watson has specimens from Durham and Moray. 

 According to the " Cybele Hibernica," it occurs in the North-east 

 of Ireland. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Annual. Late Summer 

 and Autumn. 



Extremely like small specimens of M. pratense, but more 

 slender, with the branches less spreading and less flexuous, 6 to 15 

 inches high ; the leaves less spreading, more attenuated towards 

 the base ; the bracts always without teeth ; the flowers more 

 remote, much smaller, J to f inch long ; the corolla bright orange- 



