FIGWORT TRIBE 25 



13. SiBTHORP's MoNEY-woiiT (SibUidrpia). 



Cornish Sibthorpia (S. eitropcea). — Leaves roundish, lobedand notched; 

 Howei's axillary, 5-cleft, on very short stalks, solitary ; perennial. This, one 

 of the most graceful of our plants, is very common in Cornwall growing on 

 the shady banks of springs and streams, and forming masses of delicate 

 green. Its trailing stems are clad with the hairy, roundish kidney-shaped 

 leaves, which obtained for it its familiar name. The stems are hairy and 

 very slender ; and the tiny flowers, which expand from June to September, 

 are of a pale flesh-colour. This elegant little plant, which occurs also in 

 Devonshire, Hampshire, Sussex, Wales, Kerry, and the Channel Islands, 

 received its generic name from Dr. Humphrey Sibthorp, the Professor of 

 Botany, who succeeded Dillenius at Oxford, and who is well known to 

 botanists by his works on the plants of Greece, as he travelled into that 

 country for the purpose of identifying the flowers and trees mentioned, by 

 classic writers. 



14. Mullein {Verhdseum). 



* Leaves running down the stem, ivooUi/. 



1. Great Mullein {J\ thdpsns). — Stem simple ^ leaves large, oblong, 

 somewhat egg-shaped, woolly on both sides, all running down the stem ; 

 flowers in dense spikes ; corolla wheel-shaped, two of its stamens longer than 

 the rest and smooth, the other three hairy ; biennial. This tall Mullein, 

 with its stem four or five feet high, is not unfrequent on waste grounds and 

 banks of which the soil is chalk, gravel, or sand. It is also often planted in 

 gardens, not merely because it is ornamental, but because bees are very fond 

 of the floweis. The stem is angular and winged, and, like the leaves, it is 

 so clothed with grey, woolly down, that we wonder not at the poet's 

 description — 



" The antique Mullein's flannel leaves," 



or that the peasant calls it Flannel-flower. Nor is its woolly covering adverted 

 to in the names of our own land only, for the Germans call it JVollkraiit, and 

 the Dutch JP^ollekruid. In Italy the familiar name for the Mullein is Tassobar- 

 basso, and in Spain Gordolobo, while the French call it Bouillon blanc, and the 

 Portuguese Verbascum bianco. When we look at its tall tapering spike of 

 light yellow flowers, we are not surprised to find that in a period when 

 candles were commonly burnt in churches it should have suggested to our 

 fathers the old names of High Taper, Candlewick Taper, and Torches ; while 

 it was also known, in common with some other species, by the names of Hare's- 

 beard and Bullock's Lung-wort. It is frequent in several parts of Europe, 

 growing, as with us, on dry banks and field borders, and is said to have taken 

 its specific name from its abundance in the Isle of Thapsos. Mr. Purton, in 

 his "Midland Flora," remarks, that this species has considerable medicinal 

 qualities ; and other authors mention that its golden yellow flowers, when 

 dried in the sun, yield an unctuous ointment. Kalm, when in Pennsylvania, 

 remarks of this plant, "The Swedes settled here call it Tobacco of the 

 Savages." They thoughi; that the Indians smoked the leaves, but their 



m. — 4 



