By Thomas Bruges Flower, Esq. 141 
Only as yet observed in the above districts, and in these only parti- 
ally distributed, ultimately it may not prove to be rare in the county. 
This species is by no means unfrequent in the adjoining county 
(Hampshire) as I learn from my late valued friend, Dr. Bromfield, 
who informed me it was principally confined to the temperate ma- 
ritime and Western parts of Europe. 
14. R. arvensis (Linn.) arable, Corn-crowfoot. Engl. Bot. ¢. 135. 
Reich. Icones, iii. 21. 
Locality. Cultivated fields, abundant, and a troublesome weed, 
in clay soils, but less frequent on chalk and gravel. A. Fi. June. 
Area. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 
General in all the districts. 
Easily known by its large prickly pericarps, which has doubtless 
obtained. for this plant the opprobrious name it bears in the county 
of Devil’s claws. It often completely over-runs many of our corn- 
fields, proving a most troublesome weed, and possesses the acrid 
and poisonous properties of its tribe in a high degree. The species 
of this genus are, in fact, remarkable from the widely different 
properties secreted by their different organs, an example of which 
is seen in the “R. acris,” for if the leaves are bruised and applied 
to the skin it soon produces inflammation, and at length ulceration, 
while from its flowers there is exhaled a harmless but agreeable 
odour. There are many other tribes of plants which furnish much 
more striking examples; this, however, may be sufficient to excite 
the student’s enquiry as to what is the peculiar organization of the 
different parts of the plant, thus to produce secretions so opposite 
in their properties; and why the same plant should secrete in one 
part a harmless and odorous substance, and in another a pungent 
or virulent one. But as Wordsworth says, 
‘By contemplating these forms, 
In the relations which they bear to man, 
He shall discern, how through the various means, 
Which silently they yield, are multiplied 
The spiritual presence of absent things. 
Trust me, that for the instructed time will come 
When they shall meet no object but may teach 
Some acceptable lesson to their minds, 
Of human suffering, or of human joy.” 
