THE SLENDER HARE’S-EAR— continued. 
leaves ; and greenish-yellow bracteoles three times as long as the minute yellow 
flowers of its umbellules. Turner writes of it in his “Names of Herbes” (1548) : — 
“ Perfoliata is an herbe wyth a leafe lyke a pease, Sc litle blacke seedes in the top. The Germans cal it Duichwassz. It 
maye be called in englishe Thorowwax, because the stalke waxeth thorowe the leaues.” 
The name Hare s-ear, or rather its Latin equivalent Auricula leporis , given by 
the early herbalists to an allied continental species, has now been adopted as a 
general English name for the group, and appears also in the German Hasenohrchen 
and the French Oreille de lievre , though in the latter language Bupl'evre is also used. 
It is possible that the species to which this name originally referred, stated by Lobel 
to occur about Montpellier, was B.falcatum Linne, a perennial, one to four feet high, 
with sickle-shaped cauline leaves, which was first definitely recorded in England in 
1 833, by Thomas Corder, who found it two years previously in the hedgerows 
between Chelmsford and Ongar, Essex, where it still grows. 
The narrow-leaved annual B. aristatum Bartling, which has pointed bracteoles 
longer than its flowers, is also very rare, having been only recorded in England from 
Devonshire and Sussex. 
The species here figured, B. tenuissimum Linne, is more frequent, though, as it is 
a slender annual, easily liable to be choked by other vegetation, its occurrence is apt 
to be somewhat fortuitous. It is a salt-marsh plant, but occasionally occurs in sandy 
and gravelly waste-places inland. Having, as Syme says, a habit somewhat between 
that of Knot-grass ( Polygonum aviculare Linne) and Toad Rush ( Juncus bufonius 
Linn6), it is, no doubt, often overlooked. The slender, wiry, flexuous stems may 
reach a foot in height, and, unlike those of most of the Family, are solid. The linear- 
lanceolate leaves are about an inch long and rigid, and have three longitudinal veins ; 
and the subulate bracts and bracteoles are unequal in length but generally longer than 
the little umbels which consist of about three minute yellowish flowers. The 
stamens mature somewhat before the stigmas, in August or September ; but the 
flowers do not appear likely to attract many insect visits. 
