YELLOW LOOSE-STRIFE. 71 



of blossom are at the ends of the shoots, and therefore 

 crown the plants and form a conspicuous terminal, as 

 few of the lower lateral branches develop flowers. The 

 flower-stalks are somewhat viscid or sticky to the touch. 

 The calyx is deeply divided into five segments, and these, 

 as our illustration very clearly shows, are edged and tipped 

 with red. The corolla is monopetalous, or all in one 

 piece, though it is deeply cut into five very distinct- 

 looking segments, and the stamens, too, are five in number, 

 of unequal length, and united for some considerable 

 distance into . a tube. The style is not very noticeable 

 during flowering, as it is about the same length as the 

 stamens, but after flowering is over it elongates. The 

 fruit is a globular capsule, and contains numerous seeds ; 

 these are very small, as compared to the size of the plant. 

 The yellow loose-strife flowers during the months of July 

 and August 



In Wales our plant is the Trcwynyn cyffreclin. Un- 

 like many of our plants, it does not seem to have been 

 known under various names in different parts of the 

 country, but is, wherever we meet with it, the yellow 

 loose-strife. The ordinary rustic does not trouble himself 

 about names at all, while the herbalist or gatherer of 

 simples found an old belief or legend attached to the 

 name handed down, and this was sufficient to keep it 

 from being changed arbitrarily. The botanical name of 

 the yellow loose-strife is Lysimachia vulgaris. In all these 

 old points of plant-lore what " Plinie saieth " was always 

 received by the mediaeval botanists with the greatest i-espect; 

 and in the present case Pliny is our authority for the 

 statement that the name LysimacJiia was given to it in 

 memory of a certain king or perhaps it would be more 



