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SOME BOCKING FLOWERS.
By ALFRED HILLS, M.A.
THE publication in 1862 of Gibson's Flora of Essex produced
a crop of amateur botanists in these parts, but it is
unfortunate that no citizen of the Twin Towns contributed to
the Flora itself and no systematic attempt has been made at a
local herbarium. Dr. Ezekiel Varenne of Kelvedon1 and Thomas
Bentall of Halstead were our nearest reporters, but a distance
of eight miles on horseback was a consideration in those days of
bad roads, and neither paid any attention to Bocking. Within
the last 40 years it is certain that a great change has taken place
among the wild-flowers of my adopted parish. The tractor-
plough and the mole-drain, working hand in hand with the
binder, have cleaned up our arable lands, wiping out those pretty
treasures the golden Corn Marigold, the vinous Corn-cockle and
the azure Corn-flower or Blue-bottle. A sandy corn-field of
Bovingdon Hall which used to be blue with the latter plant is
now laid down to grass. The Red Hemp-nettle and the Longlive
hang on in one damp stubble by the skin of their teeth; feebly
a stunted poppy here and there raises his head. What grand
bouquets they used to make! School-children would bring
them in great bunches for the harvest festival and at home they
would string the outer florets of the Blue-bottle with a needle
and thread into little wreaths which kept their colour for a
marvellous time. Maidens on Midsummer-eve would place two
pieces of Livelong together on a slate, one for themselves and
one for their sweethearts and diagnose their lover's fidelity by
his plant living and turning to theirs, or not. In the North
these lovely purple cushions are "Midsummer-men," and in
the West "Orpines," which is their French name. To the
Botanist they are Sedum Telephium Linn.; the substantive name
means "squatter" and is derived from the habit which this fat-
leaved family has developed of squatting on rocks, walls or roofs
with hardly any soil. The trivial name comes from Telephus,
son of Hercules and King of Mysia, an early student of simples
who discovered its marvellous properties.
1 Essex Naturalist, V, pp. 42-44 (1891) and XVIII, pp. 292-300 (1918).
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