THE MEADOW VETCHLING. 31 



no less than those we have just instanced, but which do 

 not at first so clearly convey their meaning; bulrush is 

 an example of this, for it was originally written pool-rush ; 

 the modern name is but a corruption. The common brake 

 also in like manner owes its name to the locality in which 

 it flourishes, the derivation lying- doubtfully between brake, 

 the German and old English word for underwood, and 

 Irach, uncultivated ground; but in either case suggestive 

 of the home of the plant. 



The meadow vetchling will ordinarily be found in 

 flower by the second or third week in May, and once in 

 blossom continues throughout the entire summer, and 

 indeed far on into the autumn, as the plant may very 

 frequently be met with in blossom right up to September, 

 and even, though more scantily, in the beginning of 

 October. Though so beautiful and graceful in itself, the 

 old adage, " Handsome is that handsome does " is herein 

 to some degree borne out, for an old writer, Parkinson, tells 

 us that it was called in his day the " ramping wild vetch " 

 by the country people, " because it is the most pernicious 

 herbe that can gi-ow on earth, killing and strangling corne 

 or any other good herbe it shall grow by." 



The plant is a perennial, and from its weak and 

 straggling nature, and from the freedom with which it 

 branches and develops into a rather thick and tangled 

 mass, does probably cause some appreciable degree* of 

 injury, more especially when it springs up amidst a 

 growing crop, and mats it together with its clinging 

 tendrils. The flowers, bright yellow in colour, grow on 

 a long peduncle, and vary in number in each bunch, from 

 about six in feeble plants to about twice that number when 

 the plant is found under favouring circumstances, moist 



