124 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



two of the lower bracts resemble the leaves. The capsule is 

 gradually acuminated into a sharp point, as in S. aquatica, not 

 blunt and apiculate as in S. Ehrharti. Plant green, glabrous, 

 except the rachis, i^eduncles, and lower portion of the pedicels, 

 which are clothed with very short gland-tipped hairs. 



Knotty-rooted Figwort. 

 French, Scrophulaire Nouevse. German, Knotige Braunvmrz. 



The leaves of this species of Figwort ai'e somewhat purgative and emetic. They 

 are employed still by the peasantry of some districts as an application to burns and 

 swellings, being simply bruised. The Welsh have so much faith in the virtues of the 

 plant, that they call it "Deilen Dda," good leaf. The high reputation it once 

 had in English herbals has been lost. We read in some of the oldest of these, that 

 " Venus owns the herb, and the Celestial Bull will not deny it ; therefore a better 

 remedy cannot be for the King's Evil." Gerarde tells us that " Divers doe rashly 

 teach, that if it be hanged about the necke or else carried about one, it keepeth 

 a man in health." Perhaps the most interesting association with this plant is an 

 historical one connected with its tuberous I'oots, which, during the thirteen months' 

 siege of Rochelle by the army of Richelieu, in the year 1628, yielded support to the 

 garrison for a considerable period ; hence the French call it " Herbe du Siege." The 

 taste and smell of the tubers are, however, so unpleasant, that they would never be 

 resorted to but under extreme circumstances. 



SPECIES IV.— SCROPHULARIA SCORODONIA. Linn. 



Plate DCCCCL. 

 Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XX. Tab. MDCLXXIII. Fig. 2. 



Rootstock not tuberous. Stem bluntly quadrangular, with the 

 angles not winged. Leaves ovate-triangular or triangular, with 

 the petioles not winged, acute, very coarsely doubly crenate or 

 doubly crenate-serrate, without lateral lobes from the petiole ; the 

 lower ones often obtuse, very dee2)ly cordate at the base, and the 

 upper ones generally slightly so. Plowers in lax divaricate axillary 

 corymbose cymes arranged in an elongate lax panicle. Bracts 

 all like the leaves. Pedicels slender, very thickly clothed with 

 gland-tipped hairs, two to three times the length of the calyx at 

 the moment of flowering. Divisions of the calyx oval, with broad 

 scarious margins. Corolla three times as long as the calyx, not 

 contracted at the throat. Abortive stamen orbicular or reniform- 

 orbicular, spathulate, entire or emarginate. Capsule sub-globular, 

 abruptly acuminated, and apiculate. Stem and leaves hairy, clothed 

 with jointed glandular hairs ; pedicels and calyx with short gland- 

 tipped hairs. 



