THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 21 



Two groups of little plants living in the mud have derived 

 their generic names from their hahitat. Jlsanthes is from ihis, 

 mud, and uiitlios, a (lower, while JJinosella is from Hums, 

 nuid, and a word for seal, the plants appearing as if sitting in 

 the mud. Ilcrpcstis, a name formerly applied to a genus of 

 plants now included in Bacopa is Greek for a creeper. Bacopa 

 itself, is a South American word of unknown meaning and 

 Conobca, the name given to a single small plant so inconspic- 

 uous as to have no common name, is from the same source. 



The flowers of the Scrophulariaceae, like those of the 

 Labiatae, are nearly all strongly two-lipped with shapes that 

 often suggest the heads of animals as such common names as 

 "turtle head", "snapdragon", "rabbitrflower" and the like at- 

 test. It is worthy of note, however, that one section of the 

 family has flowers so nearly regular as to seem an anomaly 

 in the group and one has difficulty in harmonizing such species 

 with his conception of the family. Aside from the flowers, 

 however, the other characters of these particular plants con- 

 form to the styles for the family and no botanist has yet had 

 ihe hardihood to attempt their exclusion. Of this latter group, 

 the mullein is an excellent example. 



Everybody know'S the mullein {Verbasciim tliapsus) . The 

 white-wooll)- leaves and tall, thick flowering-spikes are familiar 

 sights in widely separated parts of the North Temperate 

 Zone and have naturally gained the species many common 

 names. More than forty of these are known. They are mostly 

 of European origin, since the plant originated on the other 

 side of the Atlantic, and the majority are of obvious deriva- 

 tion. Among the most numerous are those referring to the 

 woolly leaves, such as "velvet-dock", "candle-wick mullein", 

 "Adam's flannel", "felt-wort", "hare's beard", "flannel leaf", 

 "old man's flannel", "blanket-leaf", "flannel plant", 



