56 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



The cow-wheat owes the origin of its generic title to two Greek 

 words signifying "black " and " wheat " the seeds bearing 

 some little resemblance to that grain. An old name for the 

 plant was the Triticnm vaccinium, and another English name 

 for the plant that we find in the hei'bals is the " horse-floure." 

 In Flemish it is the " peerd-bloeme." Linnaeus tells 

 us that in fields where this plant is abundant, the butter 

 is peculiarly rich, and in the Middle Ages the some- 

 what extraordinary belief was held that the small seeds as 

 they fell were turned into wheat. This belief could so 

 readily be disproved that one finds it difficult to imagine 

 how it could ever have obtained credence. Dodonseus tells 

 us that " the seede of this herbe taken in meate or drinke 

 troubleth the braynes, causing headache and dronkennesse;" 

 and certainly those who started the harvest theory troubled 

 their " braynes " with the planfc to very little good. 



