140 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



In a few cases the flowers are solitary. The flowers 

 are usually irregular, sub-regular in the Mulleins, 

 hermaphrodite, and the flower-stalks bear two bracts 

 in the forks. The calyx is gamosepalous, usually 

 persistent in fruit, inferior, with five lobes or teeth, 

 or fewer, or unequal. The corolla is hypogynous, 

 gamopetalous, irregular, the limb usually two-lipped 

 or nearly regular, with four to five (or more) lobes, 

 overlapping in bud, or more or less valvate in bud. 

 The stamens are normally didynamous, epipetalous, in 

 pairs, four, or two or five, as in Verbascumy inserted 

 on the corolla-tube, with a rudimentary staminode 

 or posterior stamen. There is an annular glandular 

 honey-disc below the ovary. The ovary is superior 

 two-celled, many-seeded. The style is terminal, 

 simple, or bilobed. The stigma is pinheaded or 

 bilobed. The persistent calyx envelops the fruit, 

 which is a capsule (with different modes of dehiscence) , 

 or a berry. The seeds are small and numerous. 



The flowers are adapted in various ways to insects, 

 and some are wasp flowers. 



The group includes many plants with medicinal 

 properties, Digitalis, for instance, being included in 

 the Materia medica. 



In this group are included also many garden 

 flowers such as the Calceolaria, Pentestemon, Musk, etc. 



Black Mullein (Verbascum nigrum). 

 As a general rule the Mulleins are known to the 

 non-botanical public only from their occurrence in 



