126 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



present plant. Whether the cockle, however, be an 

 indigenous plant or one that has been introduced, there 

 is no doubt that it finds its surroundings all that are 

 necessary to its wellbeing, as it is in many places so 

 abundant as to be reckoned one o the farmer's pests- 

 It is the Agrostemma Githago of most authorities, though 

 some botanists unite it with the genus that includes 

 the white lychnis and the ragged-robin, and call it the 

 Lychnis Githago ; and it is certainly very nearly akin to 

 those plants in its general structure. The genus Agros- 

 temma was originally founded by Linnseus; the word is 

 Greek in its origin, and signifies " crown of the field/' a 

 testimony to the beauty of the plants, all of which, how- 

 ever, with the exception of the present species, have been 

 referred back to the allied genus Lychnis, a genus also 

 founded by the great Swedish botanist. 



Some of our readers will recall a passage in the Bible 

 where, after Job's solemn protestation of his integrity, he 

 calls even his land to bear record against him if those 

 protestations of uprightness are false, and concludes by 

 saying, " Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle 

 instead of barley/' The reading, however, in the margin 

 substitutes the expression " noisome weeds " for the cockle 

 in the body of the text. We are unable to find that 

 cockle is one of the plants of Palestine, though it is very 

 possible that it is ; all, therefore, that we seem able to 

 really deduce from the passage is, that at the time our 

 authorised version was made cockle at once suggested 

 itself to the translators as a representative noisome weed 

 in the corn-field. 



The corn-cockle is an annual. It is in general effect 

 erect, for it branches but slightly, such branches as there 



