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already too prolific in cereal nuisances of various kinds. From Mr 

 Borrer I learn that this gaudy pest is reported to have been brought 

 in with corn from Jersey, which is very improbable, seeing that the 

 purple cow-wheat is not mentioned as a native of that island in Ba- 

 bington's 'Primitive Floras Sarnicae,' nor have I ever remarked it there 

 myself. From Mr. George Kirkpatrick, of Newport, I understand it 

 is rumoured to have been conveyed hither in seed-wheat from Norfolk, 

 whilst according to others it was imported from Spain. As this spe- 

 cies abounds in a few of the middle and eastern parts of England, 

 and especially in Norfolk, I am most inclined to believe we are in- 

 debted to that county for the unwelcome present, nor, except in this 

 island, am I acquainted with any stations for Melampyrura arvense 

 south and west of London. The name of poverty-weed, inapplicable 

 as it may appear to so showy a plant, bears reference, I presume, to 

 an opinion that it exhausts or impoverishes the soil, or indirectly, per- 

 haps, alluding to a similar effect on the pocket of the farmer, the pro- 

 duce of whose fields is rendered less marketable from the blue colour 

 imparted to the wheat flour contaminated by an admixture with the 

 seeds, from which it is scarcely possible to free the grain by winnow- 

 ing, as the specific gravity of both is pretty nearly the same. Wither- 

 ing remarks that although the seeds of M. arvense give a bitterness 

 and discoloration to the bread, they do not make it unwholesome, but 

 the contrary opinion prevails here amongst our country people, who 

 attribute decidedly injurious effects to bread so adulterated, which a 

 poor woman described to me as "tasting sharp in the mouth." The 

 flavour of the fresh seeds I find to be hot, bitter and disagreeable. 

 A respectable middle-aged man, named Rabbett, a shoemaker, who 

 resided for many years at Whitwell, and now keeps the new toll-gate 

 at Shanklin, tells me that when employed with others harvesting on 

 Week farm, they used to pull up the poverty-weed with the greatest 

 care, and carry it off the fields in bags and burn it, picking up the 

 seeds from the ground wherever they were found lying. Of late years 

 he thinks the bread from the Dean and Week farms is not so dark 

 coloured and "hot" as it used to be, and that the plant is less plenti- 

 ful than formerly. He remarks that the Melampyrum often makes its 

 appearance in clover and grass, and comes up plentifully when the 

 land is left in lay, at which time it might be eradicated without in- 

 jury to any crop. He gives the same account as others of its intro- 

 duction to the island with seed-wheat, but does not know from 

 whence this "droll" weed is supposed to have come to us, which was 

 before his recollection. I am quite persuaded that negligent farming 



