1 42 FLOWERS OF THE ROADSIDES AND HEDGES 



cans, Milk Maid, Miller's Star, Moon-flower, Moonwort, Owd Lad's 

 Corn, Pick Pocket, Piskies, Pyxie, Shepherd's Weather Glass, Shirt 

 Buttons, Smocks or Smock-frocks, Snakeflower, Snap Crackers, Snap 

 Jack, Snappers, Snap Stacks, Snapwort, Snow, Snowflake, Star- 

 flower, Star of Bethlehem, Starvvort, Stichewort, Stitchwort, Thunder- 

 flower. 



Such is a fair example of the multiplicity of local names for common 

 flowers, which are not without some interest in every case. 



This plant was called Stitchwort because it used to be drunk in 

 wine with powdered acorns for pain in the side or the "stitch". 

 It appears to have been called Thunder- flower because the unripe 

 capsule contains air, and when pressed goes off with a bang, and 

 children are fond of doing this. It was called Allbone on account 

 of the jointed stems, or as explained above. The name Lady's Lint 

 may be from the fine threads in the stalks. It is called Devil's Eye, 

 being held in special favour by fairies, and peasants hesitated to pluck 

 it in case they were " pixy-led ". 



The Yellow Underwing hovers over it in daylight in the sunlight. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



55. Stcllaria Holostea, L. Stem erect, slender, rigid, rough, leaves 

 sessile, long-keeled, acuminate, grooved, fringed, flowers white, petals 

 twice as long as sepals, bifid, capsule globose. 



Perforate St. John's Wort (Hypericum perforatum, L.) 



This common plant has been found in Preglacial beds in Suffolk, 

 Interglacial beds in Sussex, and in Neolithic beds in Edinburgh. At 

 the present time it is at home in the North Temperate Zone in Arctic 

 Europe, North Africa, Siberia, West Asia as far as the Himalayas. 

 In the United States, America, it is an introduction. It is generally 

 distributed in Great Britain, but it is absent in the counties of Cardigan, 

 South Lines, Stirling, S. Perth, P^lgin, Westerness, Mid and N. 

 Ebudes, West Sutherland, and the Northern Isles. In Yorkshire it 

 grows at a height of 1000 ft. 



The Perforate St. John's Wort is as familiar a plant along the road- 

 side as Herb Robert, the Yellow Vetchling, or Tufted Vetch, or Hedge 

 Parsley, Cleavers, and Wood Basil, which commonly grow with it. It 

 is generally found near hedges or banks, and the highway is quite gay 

 with clumps of its yellow bloom from July to September. 



Many rounded or slightly angular stems arise from the same root 

 in this as in other species, giving it a clustered appearance. They are 



