GOAT'S BEARD. 84 



Goat's Beard (Tragopogon pratensis). 



One of the folk-names of this plant is " John-go-to-bed-at- 

 Noon," and I think it is the only example of a British plant 

 name that is a sentence of six words. " Three-faces-under-a- 

 hood " runs it pretty closely, but the few names we have of this 

 order do not usually exceed four words ; such as Queen-of-the- 

 Meadows, Jack-by-the-hedge, and Poor-man's-weatherglass. 

 John-go-to-bed, etc., is a nice expressive name, and is due to 

 the fact that the flower is an early-closer with a vengeance. 

 It is probably the originator of the eight-hours day, for it opens 

 at four in the morning and closes by twelve. Farmers' boys 

 were said of old to consult its flowers with reference to dinner- 

 time, but probably in these days of machine-made watches the 

 practice is obsolete. 



Goat's-beard has a tap-root, somewhat like a parsnip, and 

 long curling grass-like, stalkless leaves that clasp the stem by 

 their bases. The flower-heads are solitary, yellow, and the 

 eight involucral bracts are united at the base. All the florets 

 (like those of Dandelion, Sowthistle and Chicory) are rayed, 

 and contain both stamens and pistil. They are invested with 

 pappus hairs (see page 20), which are stiff and feathered. It 

 is from these beards the plant gets its English name, which is 

 reproduced in the Greek words from which the name of the 

 genus is composed, tragos, a goat, and fogon, a beard. It 

 flowers during June and July, and is fairly common in meadows 

 and wastes in England ; much more rarely in Scotland and 

 Ireland. 



There is an introduced species with larger purple or rose-coloured flowers, found 

 occasionally in damp meadows. This is the Salsify ( Tragopogon porrifolius}. It 

 is occasionally grown for the sake of its roots, which have a medicinal value, but 

 inferior to those of Scorzonera, which it somewhat resembles. 



G 2 



