And goodly now the noon-tide hour, When from his high meridian tower, The sun looks down in majesty, What time about the grassy lea The Goat’s Beard, prompt his rise to hail With broad expanded disk, in veil Close mantling wraps his yellow head, And goes, as peasants say, to bed.
The habits of Goat’s Beard, or as it is often called, John-go-to-bed-at-noon, are indicated by the latter name. It is less known as Joseph’s Flower, which Mr Friend[24] says “seems to owe its origin to pictures in which the husband of Mary is represented as a long-bearded old man,” but Gerarde gives the Low-Dutch name of his time, “Josephe’s Bloemen,” and says “when these flowers be come to their full maturity and ripeness, they grow into a downy blow-ball, like those of the Dandelion, which is carried away by the winde.” Evelyn praises it, and is indignant with the cunning of the seed-sellers. “Of late they have Italianiz’d the name, and now generally call it _Salsifex_... to disguise it, being a very common field herb, growing in most parts of _England_, would have it thought (with many others) an Exotick.” He does not give the full Latin name, so one cannot tell whether it is our Salsify (_Tragopogon porrifolius_) that he means, or _T. pratensis_, the variety once more generally cultivated. The latter seems the likeliest, as its yellow flowers are far more common than the purple ones of salsify. _T. porrifolius_ is extremely rare in a wild state, but _T. pratensis_ grows in “medows and fertil pastures in most parts of England.” _T. pratensis_ is never cultivated now, and “Salsify” applies exclusively to Purple Goat’s Beard (_T. porrifolium_). The old herbalists praised it very highly.
Dr Fernie translates its botanical name, _Cochlearia_, from the shape of the leaves, which resemble, he says, an old-fashioned spoon; _ar_, near; _mor_, the sea, from its favourite locality. “For the most part it is planted in gardens... yet have I found it wilde in Sundrie places... in the field next unto a farme house leading to King’s land, where my very good friend Master _Bredwell_, practitioner in Phisick, a learned and diligent searcher of Samples, and Master _William Martin_, one of the fellowship of Barbers and Chirugians, my deere and loving friend, in company with him found it and gave me knowledge of the plant, where it flourisheth to this day.... Divers think that this Horse-Radish is an enemie to Vines, and that the hatred between them is so greate, that if the roots hereof be planted neare to the Vine, it bendeth backward from it, as not willing to have fellowship with it.... Old writers ascribe this enmitie to the vine and Brassica, our Colewortes.” Both he and Parkinson think, that in transferring the “enmitie” from the cabbage to the horse-radish, the “Ancients” have been mistranslated. The Dutch called it Merretich; the French, Grand Raifort; the English, locally, Red Cole. Evelyn calls it an “excellent, universal Condiment,” and says that first steeped in water, then grated and tempered with vinegar, in which a little sugar has been dissolved, it supplies “Mustard to the Sallet, and serving likewise for any Dish besides.”