A vocabulary of landscape — a landscape of words
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eyebright
Eyebright is a low annual of short unimproved grassland with small white flowers marked with purple veins and a yellow blotch in the throat. It is a partial parasite: It photosynthesizes normally but also taps the roots of nearby grasses for water and nutrients, which lets it hold its own in turf that would otherwise crowd it out. It rarely reaches more than a few inches.
Etymology
The English name comes from the plant’s long use as a remedy for sore eyes, and the reasoning behind that use was the flower itself. The purple veins and yellow center were read as a picture of a bloodshot eye, and under the old idea that a plant advertises its purpose by its appearance, that made it an eye plant. The scientific name, Euphrasia, is the Greek word for gladness, and it is also the name of one of the three Graces.
Notes
Milton uses it in Paradise Lost, where the archangel Michael clears Adam’s sight with euphrasy and rue so that he can see the future. Eyebright is notoriously hard to identify to species.