168 FIRST STEPS IN GENERAL KNOWLEDGE, 



neighbouring plants. And all the Catchfly family, 

 of which, perhaps, yon are best acquainted with 

 one that grows in corn-fields, called bladder- 

 campion,* because its calyx is swelled into a 

 bladder shape ; and all the sandworts,t and the 

 lychnis family, of which one is your favourite 

 ragged robin ;J and the purple corn-cockle, that 

 looks so handsome, but is so little wished for by 

 the farmer. All these belong to the Clove tribe ; 

 and I think you can hardly help noticing the 

 family likeness amongst them. As to any quality 

 common to all, I think they are classed more from 

 the absence than the presence of any such : being 

 ail insipid herbs, like their neighbours the pur- 

 slanes. Other relatives of theirs, forming the 

 BUCKWHEAT tribe, have a pleasant acid in their 

 leaves and shoots, and very bitter roots. The 

 common sorrel and dock, as well as the rhubarb, 

 so much used in tarts, belong to this latter tribe, 

 Buckwheat itself is one of a very large family of 

 plants common in hedges, ditches, and fields. 

 Some of these plants you know under the name of 

 snake-weed, knot-grass, Persicaria, &c. ; and they 



* Silene inflata. t Arenaria. 



% Lychnis Flos-cucuti. Agrostemma Githago. 



