42 SAGINA. 



our early herbalists never doubted*. Wheat, they believed, sown in 

 sour land became rye in the second year, and two years after went 

 into darnel. Barley under a similar treatment passed into oats ; and 

 cereals in general might become the very weeds that choked the hus- 

 bandman's expectations. Of the Blewbottle or 33ltul)lalu:S, Turner 

 says — "it groweth muche among Rye: wherefore I thynke, that 

 good ry, in an euell and unseasonable yere doth go out of kynde in 

 to thys wede." — In relation to this subject the curious reader may 

 consult Dr. Weissenborn's account of the transformation of Oats into 

 Rye in Charles worth's Magazine of Natural History, i. p. 574 ; ii. 

 p. 670: Vestiges of Creation, p. 225 ; and the Sequel, p. 1 1 1 : Notes 

 and Queries, vi. p. 7. — Cockle, says Richardson, is from the " A.S. 

 coccel, which Skinner thinks is from Ceocan, to choke, because it 

 chokes the corn." This is to mistake the character of this weed : 

 it does not- choke the com, but its injuriousness arises from the seeds 

 being mingled and ground with the grain and communicating an un- 

 wholesome quality to the flour. The name undoubtedly has the same 

 root as Cockeno (p. 30). Indeed Bailey makes Cockle the synonym 

 of the Corn- Rose; and Johnson defines it to he " a species of Poppy." 

 — The seeds are reckoned a remedy for toothache. 



TJ. Sagina procumbens. At the bottom of shaded walls, and 

 on heaths and grassy poor pastures, very common. Summer. — The 

 flowers are ceruuous before their blow, and after it the capsules be- 

 come also nutant. The parts of fructification are occasionally in 

 fives. 



78. S. MARiTiMA = S. stricta, Koch Fl. Germ. 109. — D. Very 

 abundant on Yareforde or Yarrow-haugh. Links south of Fenham. 

 On rocks in Holy-Island between the Heugh and the Castle. The 

 Fame islands. 



79. S. APETALA. — B. On the parapet of the Walls at Fisher's 

 Fort. Banks of the Ale near Lint-hill farm-house, A. A. Carr. 

 Foot of Dunglass dean, J. Hardy. D. Holy Island Castle, Dr. F. 

 Douglas. — The ripe capsules are generally erect, but sometimes 

 nutant. 



* " But in Plants, wherein there is no distinction of sex, these trans- 

 plantations are conceived more obvious than any; as that of Barley into 

 Oats, of Wheat into Darnel ; and those grains which generally arise among 

 Com, as Cockle, Aracus, jEgilops, and other degenerations, which come up 

 in unexpected shapes, when they want the support and maintenance of the 

 primary and master-forms. And the same do some affirm concerning other 

 Plants in less analogy of figures ; as the mutation of Mint into Cresses, 

 Basil into Serpoil, and Turneps into Radishes. In all which, as Severinus 

 conceiveth, there may be equivocal seeds and Hermaphroditical principles, 

 which contain the radicality and power of different forms ; thus in the seed 

 of Wheat there lieth obscurely the seminality of Darnel, although in a se- 

 condary or inferiour way, and at some distance of production ; which never- 

 theless if it meet with convenient promotion, or a conflux and conspiration 

 of causes more powerful than the other, it then beginneth to edifie in chief, 

 and contemning the superintendent form, produceth the signatures of its 

 self." Sir Thomas Brown. Vulg. and Com. EiTors, Bk. iii. p. 117. 



