Perennial — Flowers in July and August. 
Root creeping, slender, somewhat woody, of a yellowish colour. 
Stem from I to 2 feet high, somewhat woody, round, or slightly 
4-cornered, with numerous, opposite, square, leafy, often downy, 
branches. Leaves verticillate, 8 or 10 in a whorl, often decreasing 
in number towards the extremities of the branches, sessile, strap- 
shaped, bluntish, with a slight point ; narrowed at the base, rolled 
back at the edges, variously deflexed, dark glossy green above, 
paler beneath. Flowers of a golden yellow, very numerous, in 
dense tufted panicles, smelling of honey, very strongly in the even- 
ing, or before rain. Segments of the corolla greatly expanded. 
Stamens short. Anthers yellow, finally brownish. Style cloven 
more than half way down. Fruit small, round, blackish. 
A kind of vinegar is said to have been distilled from the flowery 
tops of this species, and the herb was formerly used to coagulate 
milk, for Cheshire cheese ; from later experiments it has not suc- 
ceeded in coagulating milk. It has probably been put into milk 
destined to make cheese, not so much for the purpose of curdling 
it, as of giving it a flavour ; or as Matthiolus expresses it, to 
make it eat the sweeter. The French formerly prescribed the 
flowers in hysteric and epileptic cases. Boiled in alum-water the 
flowering stems dye a good yellow-colour. The roots dye a fine 
red, not inferior to madder, and are said to be used for that purpose 
in the Island of Jura. — Sheep and goats eat the plant; horses and 
swine refuse it ; cows are not fond of it. It is subject to a disease, 
in which the stem and branches are beset with fleshy balls, about 
the size of a pea, hollow within, and covered with a purplish skin. 
A small, brown-coloured fungus (Pucc'inia galidrum, of Link, 
Willd. Sp. PI. v. vi. pt. ii. p. 76. ; and Hook. Brit. FI. v. ii. pt. n. 
p. 366.) is sometimes found on its leaves. 
The caterpillars of Deilephila lineata, D. gallii, D. elpenor, 
and Macroglossa stellatarum, are said to feed on this plant, (see 
Curt. Brit. Entomol. vol. i. folio 3). 
“ Summer! delicious Summer ! thou dost fling 
Thy unbought treasures o’er the glorious earth ! 
Music is in thy step, and in thine eye 
A flood of sunshine ! on thy brow is wreathed 
Garlands that wither not, and in thy breath 
Are all the perfumes of Arabia ! 
Thou wilt not frown, tho’ I have pluck’d unseen 
One little blossom from thy golden hair.” 
H. G. BELL, 
