MONEYWORT 165 



many others no less available, no less acceptable. 

 As we have been dealing with moisture-loving 

 plants, we may commence our consideration of 

 various creeping plants with the moneywort, as it 

 may well companion these. 



As we wander by the banks of some stream we 

 may find from time to time a rich tapestry of the 

 vivid green of the foliage of the moneywort, liberally 

 besprinkled with its golden star-like blossoms. The 

 prostrate stems travel in the soft, moist earth some 

 two feet or more, and, as they throw out roots very 

 freely at intervals along their under surfaces, and 

 branch equally freely, they take a firm hold of the 

 ground and quickly cover a large area. The diffi- 

 culty in the garden is not so much cultivation but 

 repression, the keeping of its exuberance within 

 due bounds, as a piece of stem, two or three inches 

 long, deposited on the damp ground will quickly 

 throw out roots and start an independent existence. 

 The leaves are almost circular and in pairs, hence 

 one popular name for the plant is the herb twopence. 

 The perhaps better-known name we have first used 

 carries with it the same suggestion of resemblance 

 to money. "We in English," says Parkinson, 

 "call it Herbe Two Pence or twopenny grass, 1 



1 We have already seen in the case of the grass of 

 Parnassus how a plant of quite different nature may yet be 

 called a grass in the popular nomenclature of mediaeval and 

 yet earlier days. Other examples are the glasswort, called 



