424 OUTDOOR LIFE IN ENGLAND 



curdling and also as a dye, salt and nettles being 

 added to it for the former purpose. Its scientific 

 appellation of Galium is derived from the Greek 

 yaAa (milk), by reason of its milk-curdling property. 

 There are no fewer than sixteen varieties of the 

 bedstraw in Britain, amongst them being included 

 the plant known as the bur, the seeds of which 

 are said, when roasted, to be a good substitute for 

 coffee, though I am personally unable to endorse 

 the assertion. 



Most of us are familiar with the burdock, and 

 which of us has not experienced a close acquaint 1 

 ance with its prickly and tenacious seed-pods ? 

 Nor have we far to go to seek for the derivation 

 of its name, ' bur ' and * dock ' being sufficiently 

 suggestive in themselves. I have seen it stated 

 that these burs are at times used by the village 

 boys for the purpose of catching bats, by throwing 

 them up into the air ; the bat, darting at it in 

 mistake for a moth or fly, becomes entangled with 

 its thorny spines and falls helplessly to the ground. 

 During the later months of summer the plant puts 

 forth its flowers, which are of a purple-lilac colour. 

 It was at one time used medicinally as a salve for 

 wounds, and inwardly as a cure for rheumatism 

 and pectoral complaints. 



The bogbean, erroneously termed the buck- 

 bean, is amongst the most beautiful of our British 

 wild-flowers. It is also known as the marsh 

 trefoil. As the latter and its truer appellation 

 infer, it is a marsh plant. A description of the 



