120 WILD FLOWEES OF SUMMEIt. 



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tiou and tlieir resinous odour. The most common spe- 

 cies is the perforated St. John's Wort (Hypericum 

 perforatwri). Its two-edged stem is about two feet high. 

 There are small black dots at the tips of the petals and 

 on the calyx, and the leaves on being held to the light 

 appear to be marked with translucent dots, which rural 

 superstition avers to have been made by the " auld 

 Mahoun" with a needle. This species of hypericum 

 was formerly held in great esteem as a vulnerary, and 

 an ointment is even now made from it. Its old name 

 was "Balm for the warrior's wound." The St. John's 

 wort is as frequent in the open spaces near the woods 

 as in the woods themselves. 



In July we may find, particularly in the Eastern 

 counties, the yellow Cow "Wheat (Melampyrwn pra- 

 lense) and its fellow (M. cristatum}. The latter is a 

 handsome flower, with a little purple within its yellow 

 lip. It is not so common as the first-mentioned, which 

 has large yellow flowers which grow on a straggling 

 stem about a foot high. It belongs to the Figwort 

 tribe, and turns black in drying. 



Close by we shall probably find the Knotted Fig- 

 wort (Scropliularia nodosa), where the land-spring 

 is undrained and the soil is moist. We shall easily 



