REST-HARROW. 94 



Rest-Harrow (Ononis spinosa). 



The Rest-Harrow or Wrest-Harrow is one of those plants 

 whose presence in the pasture is said to indicate its poverty or 

 the neglect of the cultivator. In Sussex and Hampshire it is 

 known as the Cammock. It is a perennial low shrub, some- 

 times creeping near the ground, and at others growing more 

 erect. The rootstock often creeps underground, a habit to 

 which the plant owes its popular name, as it is said to be so 

 tough as to wrest the harrow from the even tenor of its way. 

 The more prostrate form is covered with viscid hairs ; the 

 more erect-growing plants are spiny. In the latter condition it 

 is said that only donkeys will eat it, and hence its scientific 

 name ononis, from onos, an ass, but it is open to question 

 whether the ass has any fondness for it if he can get other 

 food. The flowers are of the usual papilionaceous structure 

 already described (see pp. 7, 43, 48, 50, 52, 72), and may be borne 

 either singly or in racemes. They are pink in colour ; the 

 petal known as the standard is very large in this species, and 

 streaked with a fuller red. The pod is very small, and in the 

 hairy form is not so long as the calyx. The flower does not 

 secrete honey, but in spite of this fact, it seems to be chiefly 

 if not exclusively fertilized by bees, who are evidently fooled 

 by its resemblance to other flowers of the same form that do 

 offer refreshment to insect visitors. The worker-bees, however, 

 get pollen for their pains, but the males are sadly disappointed. 

 Rest- Harrow will be found flowering in dry wastes from June 

 to September. 



There is another species, the Small Rest-Harrow (O. reclinata), an annual with 

 spreading hairy, viscid stems, only a few inches in length, stalked rosy flowers not 

 half the size of spinosa, and a hairy pod as long as the calyx, or longer. It is 

 exceedingly local, and has only been reported as occurring on sandy cliffs it Devon, 

 Wigton and Alderney. Flowering in June and July. 



