ME L AMP Y R UM arrenfe.
Purple Cow-wheat.
/cjS
D IH T N A M I A Angiofpermia.
G e n. Ch a r . Calyx four-cleft. Upper lip of the Corolla
comprefled, turned back at the margin. Capfuls
two-celled, oblique, burfting at one edge. Seeds
two, gibbous.
Spec. Ch a r. Spikes conical, loofe. Bradteas fringed
with narrow taper teeth.
Sy n . Melampyrum arvenle. Linn. Sp. PI. 842. Hudf.
FI. An. 270. With. Bot. Arr. 638. Dickfon's Dried
Plants, No. 74.
M. purpurafcente coma. Rail Syn. * 286.
T h i s , though a rare plant, occurs occafionally in corn-fields
in feveral parts of England, flowering in July and Auguft.
Our fpecimen came from Coftefy, near Norwich,' and was
obligingly communicated by Mr. Pitchford. Few flowers excel
it in beauty; nor is it much inferior in this refpe£t to the
Melampyrum nemorofum, of which Linnseus obferves, with a
kind of triumph, that it grows in Sweden, though not in
England. We are fcarcely, indeed, worthy to poflefs the
M. arvenfe; for its charms, however ftriking, have never procured
it admiffion into a flower-garden, though it may eafily
be raifed from frelh feed on a dry gravelly foil. The root is
annual. The feeds refemble very much grains of wheat.