FLOWERS OF THE FIELD 81 



he saw " very many acres overgrown with it, insomuch 

 that it doth not onely spoyle the land, but the corne 

 also, as cockle or darnel, and is a weed that generally 

 spreadeth over that corner of the shire." 



Sometimes most interesting and delicate plants are 

 found among the corn. The beautiful Adonis or 

 pheasant's eye will never be forgotten if once seen. 

 This striking little annual, with its finely-cut leaves 

 and bright scarlet flowers, belongs to the buttercup 

 tribe, and is only occasionally met with. Still, in 

 places it has firmly established itself, and year after 

 year may be found on the same farms. In the chalky 

 corn-fields above the Undercliff in the Isle of Wight 

 it has been known for many years, and may be seen 

 every summer in company with lamb's lettuce, the 

 dainty field madder, and the gaudy cow wheat. But 

 in one district in Hampshire it may be regarded, at 

 least in some seasons, as plentiful. More than a 

 century ago it was found on a farm between Aires- 

 ford and Winchester, and there it has remained ever 

 since. Year after year it comes up in the wheat and 

 barley fields, some summers in considerable profusion. 

 The writer once noticed a large bunch of it in a poor 

 woman's hand who sat opposite to him in a railway 

 carriage. He ventured to ask her where she had 

 obtained it ; sure enough it came from the farm above 

 alluded to. " There was a wonderful sight of it," the 

 good woman said. The modest little mouse-tail is a 

 near relative of the pheasant's eye, and, like it, is but 

 rarely seen. It is so called from the arrangement of 

 the carpets or seed vessels, which form a close slender 

 spike, sometimes two inches in length, and resembling, 

 says an old botanist, " very notably the taile of a 

 mouse." It is most erratic in its habits, suddenly 



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