SOLAN ACE.^. 211 



P. orientalis (^Purple P.) — This species grows about i foot 

 or 18 inches high. The leaves are broadly egg-shaped, and 

 form rather dense masses. The flowers, smaller than those of 

 the last species, are in compact head-like panicles, and dark 

 purple. They appear simultaneously with those of the last. 

 Native of Iberia. 



Ramondia pyrenaica {Pyrenean P., syn. Verba scum Alycofii). 

 — This is a handsome little alpine plant. It grows a few inches 

 high, forming flat masses of roundish heart-shaped, much- 

 wrinkled, notched, and toothed leaves, clothed on the upper 

 side with shaggy hairs, and below with rusty down. The 

 flowers are borne on short stalks in few - flowered panicles — 

 are deep purple with a yellow eye. Flowers in May and June. 

 It flourishes best in moist shady nooks about rockwork. The 

 drainage should be thorough, and the soil good sandy loam and 

 peat, the latter predominating. Propagate by division and by 

 seed. Native of the Pyrenees. 



Verbascum {Midlem). — A large genus of striking and in many 

 cases handsome plants. The greater part are, however, bien- 

 nials or perennials of very uncertain duration, many of which 

 establish themselves freely, and abundantly provide for their 

 propagation and perpetuation in a place by means of the large 

 quantities of seed which they annually produce and scatter 

 about. They are only fit for naturalising in woods and such- 

 like places, and rocky spots where they may find sufficient depth 

 of soil in the fissures to support their often gigantic growth. 

 The following few species are some of the more permanent 

 perennial kinds, and are worthy of a place in wide borders, in 

 the back lines of which they produce a very good effect ; and 

 they are very good for working in amongst masses of shrubs, 

 and the borders surrounding beds of these. They succeed in 

 any good garden-soil, and are readily increased by division, 

 which has an invigorating effect when the process is attended 

 to before the plants become debilitated too much, which is apt 

 to be the case if they remain many years in the same spot, 

 especially in wet soils ; and they all ripen more or less of seed, 

 which offers another ready means of increase. 



V. nigrum {Black mullein). — The quality of the specific name 

 does not apply to the flowers, but the roots. The plant grows 

 2 or 3 feet high, often more in congenial soil. The leaves are 

 heart-shaped, and stalked on the lower part of the stem, and 

 diminish in size and the length of the stalk as they ascend, till 

 they become quite stalkless. The flowers are in long racemes, 

 in weak plants commonly unbranched, but more or less branched 

 in those that are luxuriant. They are yellow, with purple-haired 



