112 WILD FLOWERS. 



but even among the corn, and was a source 

 of great annoyance to the Essex agriculturists. 

 Tlie newspapers of the county descanted on the 

 unusual quantity of this plant; which was ren- 

 dered the more troublesome, as it yields a great 

 abundance of seeds. The country people of 

 Essex had a remarkable prejudice against it, 

 as they thought that its roots emitted some 

 secretion of the plant, which burned the roots 

 of the corn. This flower is about a foot high ; 

 the stem branched, and often spotted with 

 purple. The plant is very conspicuous, when 

 its flowers are over ; for the flat seed-vessels are 

 particularly large. When the seeds are ripe, 

 they rattle in their large husks, whenever the 

 wind blows, or they are shaken by the passing 

 footstep ; and when they rattle thus on the lields 

 of Sweden, the peasant concludes that it is 

 time to cut down his grass, and commence 

 the labours of the hay field. This is not, how- 

 ever, a guide to the English farmer ; for his hay 

 is generally cut while the flower is in blossom, 

 and is stacked by the time its seeds are ripened. 



The dwarf red-rattle, (Pedicidarissi/lvatica,) 

 and the taller red species, (Pedicularisj^abosfris,) 

 are both much prettier flowers than the yellow 

 rattle. Their manner of growth, and the shape 

 of their leaves, as well as the delicate rose-tint 

 of their large blossoms, render them very orna- 

 mental, either to the heath-land, or the wet 

 marshy ground, on which they are very abundant. 



It is also on moist boggy soils that that 

 lovely flower, the butterwort, {Pinguicula vul- 



