Goat’s Beard.
Tragopogon pratensis.
—Compositæ.—
Goat’s Beard (Tragopogon pratensis).
One of the folk-names of this plant is “John-go-to-bed-at-Noon,” and I think it is the only example of a British plant name that is a sentence of six words. “Three-faces-under-a-hood” runs it pretty closely, but the few names we have of this order do not usually exceed four words; such as Queen-of-the-Meadows, Jack-by-the-hedge, and Poor-man’s-weatherglass. John-go-to-bed, etc., is a nice expressive name, and is due to the fact that the flower is an early-closer with a vengeance. It is probably the originator of the eight-hours day, for it opens at four in the morning and closes by twelve. Farmers’ boys were said of old to consult its flowers with reference to dinner-time, but probably in these days of machine-made watches the practice is obsolete.
Goat’s-beard has a tap-root, somewhat like a parsnip, and long curling grass-like, stalkless leaves that clasp the stem by their bases. The flower-heads are solitary, yellow, and the eight involucral bracts are united at the base. All the florets (like those of Dandelion, Sowthistle and Chicory) are rayed, and contain both stamens and pistil. They are invested with pappus hairs ([see page 20]), which are stiff and feathered. It is from these beards the plant gets its English name, which is reproduced in the Greek words from which the name of the genus is composed, tragos, a goat, and pogon, a beard. It flowers during June and July, and is fairly common in meadows and wastes in England; much more rarely in Scotland and Ireland.
There is an introduced species with larger purple or rose-coloured flowers, found occasionally in damp meadows. This is the Salsify (Tragopogon porrifolius). It is occasionally grown for the sake of its roots, which have a medicinal value, but inferior to those of Scorzonera, which it somewhat resembles.
Wild Thyme (Thymus serpyllum).
The Wild Thyme grows on the hills and the high heath lands, usually among fine grasses that are close-cropped by sheep and rabbits; or if on lower ground it will probably be found upon the light and well-drained soil of a mole-hill among mosses. In spite of its diminutive stature it is a shrub, with a woody rootstock and a creeping stem, from which arise the flowering stems. The leaves, which are very small and stalked, are egg-shaped, with even margins, often turned under. The rosy-purple flowers are produced in spikes. They are of the usual labiate type, and both the calyx and the corolla are two-lipped. The upper lip of the calyx is three-toothed, the lower cleft in two, the whole of a purplish hue. The upper lip of the corolla is straight and notched, the lower cut into three lobes. There are two forms of flower—smaller and larger; the small are perfect, the larger bearing developed anthers only. It should be noted also that in the complete flowers the anthers shed their pollen before the stigmas are ripe; self-fertilization is therefore impossible. The flower produces much honey, the whole plant is highly fragrant, and in consequence is very much visited by insects who carry the pollen. While the stamens are ripe the pistil is short and almost hidden within the corolla-tube; when the pollen has been shed the style elongates, the two arms of the stigma diverge and occupy a prominent position far outside the lips. Under this arrangement insects alighting on the younger flowers dust themselves with pollen, and upon visiting those a day or two older could scarcely fail to deposit some of it upon the ripe stigmas.
This is the only native species of a genus named from the ancient Greek name for the plant.