INFLUENCE OF WEATHER 125 



fruit that succeeds the flowers. This is very similar 

 to the globe that is so familiar to all in the dande- 

 lion, in each case the central seeds having attached 

 to them these feather-like hairs by which they are 

 dispersed for miles over the country-side. The 

 flowers have a very curious habit of closing up by 

 midday, 1 hence the plant has received the rustic 

 name of jack-go-to-bed-at-noon. In rainy weather 

 it declines to open at all. 



The purple flower on Plate XIII. we have seen is 

 the salsify, the Tragopogon porrifolius. The generic 

 name we have met with in the preceding paragraph, 

 the specific is from the Latin word porrum, a leek, 

 the leaves of the salsify being rather suggestive of 

 those of the leek. The plant stands nearly a yard 

 high, and its blossoms have the same curious property 

 of early closing and sensitiveness to dull weather as 

 those of its relative, the goat's-beard. The plant is 

 a very doubtful native, though the particular plant 

 from which our illustration was taken was found 

 under entirely wild conditions in a field near Scar- 

 borough, being sent to us thence by one of the 

 kindliest of nature-lovers, themselves a most kindly 

 race. As it throws up several flower-crowned stems 

 from its tap-root it is a striking-looking plant and 

 one well deserving a place in our garden. The 



1 "The goat's-beard, which each morn abroad does peep, 

 gut shuts its flowers at noon, and goes to sleep." 



COWLEY, 



