Pedicularis.] scROPHULARiACEiE. 357 



tive, 1, 2, or 3 (mostly 2) in each capsule; about 3 lines in length, pale brownish 

 yellow, ovato-oblong, terete, very smooth and shining, their lower end forme<l into 

 a large, white, nearly hemispherical, faintly striated appendage, tipped with the 

 dark prominent hilum ; their taste hot, bitter and disagreeable. 



When the seeds of this plant begin to germinate, the radicle, elongating, ele- 

 vates the yet entire seed considerably above the surface of the soil, after which the 

 testa bursts by the expansion of the plumula, and the young plant thus appears as 

 it were to vegetate in the air. 



From Mr. Borrer I learn that this gaudy pest of the farmer is reported to have 

 been introduced from Jersey, which is very improbable, seeing that it is not men- 

 tioned as a native of that island in Babington's ' Primitiae Flors Sarnicae,' nor 

 have I remarked it there myself. From Mr. George Kirkpatrick, of Newport, I 

 understand it is rumoured to have been conveyed hither from Norfolk, whilst 

 according to others it was imported from Spain. As the species abounds in a few 

 of the middle and eastern parts of England, and especially in Norfolk, I am most 

 inclined to believe we are indebted to that county for the unwelcome present ; nor 

 am I acquainted with any other stations for M. arvense S. and W. of London, 

 except in this island. The name of Poverty-weed, inapplicable as it may appear 

 to so showy a plant, bears reference, T presume, to an opinion that it exhausts or 

 impoverishes the soil, or indirectly perhaps alluding to a similar effect upon the 

 pocket of the farmer, the produce of whose fields is rendered less marketable, from 

 the blue colour imparted to the wheat-flour, contaminated by an admixture with 

 the seeds, from which it is scarcely possible to free the grain by winnowing, as the 

 specific gravity of biith is pretty much alike. Withering remarked, that though 

 the seeds of M. arvense give a bitterness and discoloration to the bread, they do 

 not make it unwholesome, but the contrary opinion prevails amongst the country 

 people here, who attribute decidedly injurious effects to bread so adulterated, and 

 which a poor woman described to,me as " tasting sharp in the mouth." 



A respectable shoemaker, named Rabbett, who resided for many years at Whit- 

 well, and has only recently left it, told me that when he was employed in harvest 

 on Week farm they used to pull up the Purple Cow-wheat or Poverty-weed with 

 the greatest care, and carry it off the field to burn it, picking up the very seeds 

 from the ground wherever they could be perceived lying. Of late years, he 

 thinks, the bread from the wheat on the Deane and Week farms is not so dark- 

 coloured and " hot" as it used to be, and that the plant is less plentiful than for- 

 merly. He remarked that it often makes its appearance in clover-fields and grass, 

 and appears plentiful when the land is left in lay, at which time it might be era- 

 dicated without injury to any crop. He gives the same account of its introduc- 

 tion into the island with seed-wheat as others do, but does not know from whence 

 this " droll " weed is supposed to have come to us, which was before his recollec- 

 tion. 



1 understand from Captain Love, R.N., who had the information from Mr. Jol- 

 liffe, of the Deane farm, which is much infested with this plant, that sheep are 

 partial to the Melampyrvm anense '; and, as the seeds are not matured in any 

 quantity till the crop is off the ground, by thus eating it off after harvest the land 

 might perhaps in a great measure be freed from this pernicious annual, if weed- 

 ing out in spring be thought too troublesome or expensive. 



VIII. Pediculaeis, Linn. Louse-wort. 



" Calyx inflated, 5-cleft, or unequally 3 — 3 lobed, jagged, some- 

 what leafy. Upper lip of the corolla laterally compressed, arched; 

 lower one plane, 3-lobed. Ovary with many ovules. Capsule 

 oblique, acute, compressed, 2- celled. Seeds angular." — Br. Fl. 



Natives for the most part of elevated and alpine regions ; our two are perhaps 

 the only European species which descend into the plains, or that even prefer a 

 low situation. 



