628 



limited to a spot of a few yards in extent, growing amongst brambles, 

 ragweed, &c, and though in moderate quantity, may possibly not be 

 truly indigenous. But if Mr. Bentham is right in referring, as he 

 does without scruple, Tenore's plant to L. vulgaris as a variety of 

 the latter,* I see no reason why it may not be equally wild with us 

 as in Italy. Mr. Watson justly remarks to me that L. vulgaris varies 

 greatly in the breadth of the leaves and the size of the flowers, though 

 he had not met with these parts so large and broad as in the speci- 

 men I sent him last year. He now has it under cultivation from 

 seeds I transmitted to him, whilst I failed in my attempts to raise 

 plants in the garden, both from seed and roots. Our plant agrees in 

 many particulars with Bertoloni's description of L. speciosa, but not 

 in all. The pedicels in my specimens are not longer than the bracts, 

 nor the spur shorter than the corolla ; the former are here fully 

 equalling or surpassing the flower-stalks in length, and the slightly 

 recurved spurs are mostly about as long as the fully expanded corolla. 



Scrophularia nodosa. In damp, shady or sometimes dry places, 

 woods, thickets, hedges, moist pastures, banks of streams, &c. ; very 

 frequent over the whole county and Isle of Wight. The S. marilan- 

 dica of Linnaeus, common in the United States, does not differ in any 

 respect from our Europaean nodosa, and is now very properly conjoined 

 with the latter by most botanists. 



aquatica. Still more common than the preceding 



species, and to be found abundantly along almost every ditch, pond 

 and stream, and in every wet hedge, thicket and marshy spot, here 

 and on the mainland. Obs. S. Ehrharti will in all probability turn 

 up within our floral limits, since it has been found in the neighbour- 

 ing county of Sussex and other parts of the south, although apparently 

 more frequent in the north of England, replacing in some degree our 

 S. aquatica, which is there uncommon. This very distinct species, 

 in our time first recognized as British by Mr. C. A. Stevens, and 

 most faithfully delineated in the ' Supplement to English Botany,' tab. 

 2875, is, I think, unmistakeably pointed out in Ray's ' Synopsis' (Dil- 

 lenian edition, p. 283) as follows: — " Scrophularia major, caulibus, 

 foliis et floribus viridibus. D. Bobart. Figwort with green leaves 

 and flowers. Found near Cumner. Common Figwort is called 

 Brownwort from its remarkable brown colour. This hath nothing of 

 Brownness in it." This account, short as it is, well describes S. 

 Ehrharti, even then considered by Ray as a distinct species (his No. 4). 



* De Cand. Prod. Pars. x. Scrophulaiiacese, auctore G. Bcnthaiu, p. 273. 



