26 SCEOPHULARINE^ 



opinion is probably not correct. They bound the Mullein leaves, however, 

 about their arms and feet to cure ague. 



* * Leaves smooth, glandular, or hairy ; upper ones half clasping, running clown 

 the stem ; flowers solitary, or in 'pairs. 



2. Moth Mullein {V. hlattdria). — Leaves oblong, smooth, notched ; root- 

 leaves often lobed at the base, upper ones pointed ; flowers solitary, stalked, 

 collected into a long spike-like loose tuft ; hairs of the filaments purple ; 

 atinual. This tall and slender Mullein has shining leaves, and its flowers, 

 Avhich expand in July and August, are of a rich yellow colour. Though not 

 a generally distributed plant, it is occasionally found south of Norfolk and 

 Staffordshire, in the south and west of Ireland, and in the Channel Isles, 

 growing on banks of a gravell}' soil. Many botanists consider that it is not 

 truly wild in this country. It appears to be peculiarly disliked by cock- 

 roaches, and there is no better method of expelling these troublesome insects 

 than by strewing its leaves over places to which they resort. The specific 

 name is from blatta, a cockroach ; and if G-erarde's statement is true, it 

 deserves also its English name of Moth Mullein, for he says that moths and 

 butterflies frequent the places where it is laid. 



3. Large-flowered Primrose-leaved Mullein (K virgdtum). — 

 Leaves twice serrated, slightly hairy, with glandular hairs, or in some cases 

 quite smooth, egg-shaped, lanceolate, and toothed, those of the root some- 

 what lyrate, narrowing at the base ; flowers from two to six together, shorter 

 than the bracts ; biennial. This rare plant, which is found in fields and on 

 gravelly banks, is by some writers considered a sub-species or variety of the 

 last species. Indeed, several so-called species of Mullein seem to run into 

 each other, owing to the existence of hybrids, so that they have required 

 much attention from botanists, who are not agreed as to their exact number. 

 M. Schrader has published a learned monograph on the subject. The fila- 

 ments of this species, like those of the last, are covered with purple hairs, 

 but the racemes are more densely flowered. 



* * * Leaves woolly or powdery, not running down the stem ; flowers in clusters. 



4. Yellow Hoary Mullein {V. puheruUntum). — Leaves egg-shaped and 

 oblong, slightly serrated, and covered on both sides with mealy wool, lower 

 ones oblong and narrow, gradually tapering into a foot-stalk, the upper one 

 sessile and pointed ; stem rounded, panicled above, with spreading branches ; 

 biennial. This species is a common plant of the road-sides in Norfolk and 

 Suffolk, and some other counties. It is, however, rare in other parts of this 

 country, and is so extremely beautiful a flower, that we can but regret that 

 it is not a more general ornament by our pathways. It is readily distinguished 

 from any other Mullein by the mealy woolly down on both sides of its leaves, 

 which in most cases may be easily rubbed off with the finger, but which 

 appears in a variety of the species to be permanent. This is in the month 

 of July a truly magnificent plant, its hundreds of large corollas being spread 

 open to bee and butterfly, forming a golden rod on a stem three or four feet 

 hi,o-h, and beautifully varied with the scarlet stamens, Avhich are covered with 

 white hairs. The flowers are on very short stalks, and these, as well as the 



