126 OUR ROCK-GARDEN 



flowers are so sensitive to sunlight that they close 

 almost directly one brings them indoors, but when 

 we desired to sketch them for our illustration we 

 stole a march upon them by standing them in water 

 on a table in brilliant sunshine, when under its 

 welcome influence they temporarily forgot their 

 severance from the plant, reopened, and gave us 

 the opportunity we needed. An old name for it 

 is nap-at-noon. Its more familiar name, salsify, is 

 a corruption from the herbalist's solsequium, be- 

 cause its flowers, like those of the sunflower were 

 reputed to do, followed the sun. Those who have 

 grown a patch of sunflowers will speedily have 

 detected that the great flowers are by no means 

 unanimous in the direction to which they turn, and 

 the flower-heads of the salsify are no more of one 

 mind than they. 



The salsify is really a plant of Southern Europe. 

 It has long been cultivated in England for culinary 

 purposes, but has now in various localities, in moist 

 meadow-lands, and especially in the south of 

 England, established itself as a wildling and gained 

 recognition as a member of our Flora. The long, 

 tapering roots have a sweet taste, and were formerly 

 in request in England, as they still are on the 

 Continent as a substitute for parsnips or carrots, 

 and the young stems are cut and eaten as one 

 would eat asparagus. The salsify's companion on 

 the Plate is the ox-eye, or moon-daisy that we see in 



