Engl. Bol. t. 657. -Curt. FI. Lond. t. 320.— Curt. Brit. Entom. v. it. t. 419. — 
Mart. FI. Rust. t. 138. — Linn. Sp. PI. p. 810, a. — Muds. FI. Angl. (2nd ed.) p. 
268, a. — VVilld. Sp I’l. v. iii. pt. n. p. 188, a. — Sin. FI. Bril. v. ii. p. 649. ; Engl. 
F'l.v. iii. p. 120. — With. (7th ed.) v. iii. p. 727, var. i. — Lind I . Syn. p 190. — 
Hook. Brit. FI. p. 283. — Light. FI. Scot. v. i. p. 322, a.— Sibrh. FI. Oxon. p.192. — 
Abb. FI. Bed. p. 134. — Davies’ Welsh Bot. p. 60. — Purt. Mid. FI. v. i. p. 285. — 
Relh. FI. Cant. (3rd ed.) p.249. — Hook. FI. Scot. p. 186. — Grev. FI. Fldin. p. 
135. — FI. Devon, pp. 103 Sc 147. — Johnst. F I. of Berw. v. i. p. 135. — Winch’s FI. 
of Northumb.and Durh. p. 41, a. — Walker’s FI. of Oxf. p. 173. — Jacob's West 
Devon and Cornwall Flora. — Bab. F’l Bath. p. 36 — Mack. Catal. of PI. of lrel. 
p. 57. ; FI. Hibern. p. 201.— Rhinanthus glaber, a, Gray’s Nat. 4rr. v. ii. p. 
311. — Pedicularis seu Crista galli lutea, Ray s Syn. p. *284 . — Crista galli, 
Johnson’s Gerarde, p. 1071. 
Localities. — In meadows and pastures; common. 
Annual. — Flowers in June. 
Root small, fibrous. Stem from 6 inches to a foot or more 
high, upright, 4-cornered, smooth, rigid, leafy ; simple, or branch- 
ed, and often spotted with red or purple. Leaves opposite, spear- 
shaped, sessile, spreading, pointed, sharply serrated, rough and 
minutely wrinkled on both sides, from an inch to an inch and a 
half long, dilated and heart-shaped at the base. Bracteas like 
the leaves, but broader at the base, and more deeply toothed, the 
teeth pointed. Flowers on very short peduncles, axillary in the 
bracteas, each pair crossing the next, and, altogether, forming a 
kind of loose, interrupted spike. Calyx large, bladdery, strongly 
ribbed, smooth, of a pale yellowish-green colour. Corolla yellow ; 
the segments of its upper lip short, bluish. Nectary an egg- 
shaped, purple, concave scale at the base of one edge of the broad 
flattish germen. Anthers red, awnless, of 2 distant very hairy 
lobes, quite concealed by the arched upper lip of the corolla , as 
are likewise the style and stigma, though the latter sometimes be- 
comes prominent as the flower fades. Capsule dry and mem- 
branous, bordered at the edge, and terminating in a short point. 
Seeds brown, smooth, with a thin, flat, broadish, membranous 
border. 
This plant is reckoned unprofitable to the farmer, encumbering rather than 
enriching his crop of hay, as cattle are not fond of it, and whether they ever eat 
h by choice is doubtful. When the fruit is ripe, the seeds rattle in the husky 
capsule, and hence the English name of Yellow Rattle ; for the same reason it 
is, in Ireland, called Rattle Box. It is known in some counties by the name of 
Penny-grass ; and in Yorkshite by that of Hen-penny ; from the shape and 
size of the seed-vessel, like a silver penny. Its other appellation of Cock' s-comb 
is derived from the appearance of the bracteas. The rattling of the seeds in the 
capsules, indicates to the Swedish peasant, as Linnjeus informs us, the time of 
eutting his grass for hay. In England we have better indications, such as the 
flowering-heads of wild Red Clover beginning to fade, and the predominant 
grasses of the crop opening their glumes, and displaying their anthers. The 
growth of this plant is remarkably quick, and is supposed in some foreign coun- 
tries to be very injurious to the crop of ltie. With us it abounds only in poor 
pastures, and some woods. See Smith’s English Flora ; and Miller’s Gard • 
Diet., by Martin. 
