124 OUR ROCK-GARDEN 



of our goat's-beard recalls a delightful holiday in and 

 around Ambleteuse, so that we see not the quaint 

 goat's-beard alone but live anew in the glorious sun- 

 shine, shared with the pleasantest of companions, 

 return again the kindly greetings of the villagers, 

 wander afresh by the margin of the sea, or along 

 the highways and byways of that pleasant land. 

 The idea of needing in such surroundings to whet 

 one's appetite, bodily or mental, seems entirely 

 superfluous, but we see in one of our old authors 

 that when such necessity arises some score of 

 plants, including the barberry, broom, elder, cows- 

 lip, samphire, mint, and woodruff, may be tried, and 

 amongst these we find the goat's-beard commended. 1 

 The flower-head of the goat's-beard is, in colour and 

 size, much like that of the dandelion. Below the 

 mass of florets is a ring of bracts, and these often 

 extend far beyond the central yellow mass, standing 

 boldly out in star-like fashion. We may see this 

 quaint feature very clearly in the purple flower the 

 salsify an allied species, on Plate XIII. The goat's- 

 beard is the Tragopogon pratense of botanical no- 

 menclature. The generic name is composed of two 

 Greek words, and is identical in meaning with its 

 popular English name, and suggested by the fluffy 

 character and grey colour of the globular head of 



1 u The roots boiled in water till tender, buttered and 

 eaten, they help the appetite, and strengthen those that 

 have been sick of chronicall diseases." LOVELL, 1665. 



