GAMOPETAL.E 145 



past age the fanciful connected the plant with the 

 disease called scrofula, regarding the rhizome as a 

 remedy for the disease (hence Scrophularia, which 

 gives the name to the Order). 



Knotted Figwort is a common plant in the British 

 Isles, extending to the north of Scotland, and occur- 

 ring in Ireland and the Channel Islands. In 

 Yorkshire it is found at an altitude of 1500 ft., or above 

 the wheat zone. 



The habitat is shady places, especially moist 

 woods, copses, hedges and thickets. The plant is 

 found in damp oakwoods on clay and loam, also on 

 sandy soil in dry oakwoods in more damp situations, 

 as well as in the marsh formation. 



The habit is erect. The rootstock is short, nodose, 

 tuberous, with many small tubers or knots. The 

 stem is simple, square, or four-angled, the angles 

 acute. The leaves are shortly stalked, dark green 

 (lighter in Water Betony), ovate or triangular to 

 heart-shaped, with double, acute, coarse teeth or 

 scalloped, and the lowest teeth are largest. The 

 veins are prominent. 



The flowers are borne in a loose cyme, or pyramidal 

 or oblong panicle, with a few glandular hairs. There 

 are small, acute, linear to lance-shaped bracts, the 

 lower ones leafy. The flowers are greenish purple, 

 lurid, but are sometimes pale green. The sepals are 

 blunt, round to ovate, and have a very membranous, 

 narrow border. The throat of the corolla is not 

 narrowed, the upper lobes being longer than those at 



VOL. III. 10 



