CLASS V. ORDEK I. | VERBASCUM. 26^ 



by two or three valves, according as the cells are two or three ; the 

 margins of the valves entering into the capsules, and thus forming 

 the disseppiments ; again each valve is deeply cleft, so that, on looking 

 at the upper half of an open capsule, we find four or six valves or 

 segments, each having one of its sides inflexed, to form (with the 

 introflexed side of the neighbouring segment) a disseppiment of a 

 double plate. Seeds fixed to two or three lobes of a central, at length 

 (when the valves open) free column or receptacle, oval, pale brown, 

 dotted." 



Habitat. — Dry moory ground ; on most of the mountains in the 

 highlands of Scotland. 



Shrub ; flowering in May and June. 



The anthers of this plant. Smith says, consist of two cells, each cell 

 opening by a rather wide pore, with a blunt border; and that he never 

 found them bursting longtitudinally. In our own investigations we 

 do not find this to be the case, but that they burst longitudinally as 

 above described in the words of Sir W. J. Hooker, whose excellent 

 description of them and the capsules we have quoted, and he further 

 remarks, " A.procumbens abounds in the Arctic Regions of, I believe, 

 the whole northern hemisphere. It is found in America, as far south 

 as the White Mountains of New Hampshire. My friend, Dr. Boott, 

 gathered it on Mount Washington of that range ; and it is extremely 

 plentiful on the highest part of the Rocky Mountains." 



GENUS XXIT. VERBAS'CUM.— Linn. Mullein. 



Nat. Ord. Solan 'E^E. Juss. 



Gen. Char. Calyx five parted. Corolla wheel-shaped, of five 



unequal segments. Filaments declining, mostly hairy. Capsule 



ovate or globose, with two cells and two valves. — Name supposed 



to he hom Bar bascum (Quasi barbascum), from Barba,a. beard^ 



in allusion to the hairy foliage of most of the species. 



1. V. Thapsus, Linn. (Fig. 347). Great Mullein, High Taper. 



Leaves decurrent, crenated, ovate-lanceolate, woolly on both sides; 



stem simple, raceme spiked, very dense, flowers with two stamens 



longer than the others, and smooth. 



English Botany, t. 549.— English Flora, vol. i. p 309. — Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 111. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 181. 



Root long, tapering. Stem erect, simple, from three to six feet high, 

 sometimes, but very rarely, branched, round, or slightly angular, 

 densely woolly, like all the rest of the plant, with very soft curiously 



