2o 4 FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



178. Crepis virens, Wallr. Stem erect, furrowed, glabrous, 

 branched, radical leaves lyrate, stem-leaves linear, sagittate, flower- 

 heads yellow, outer phyllaries linear, inner glabrous inside, fruit shorter 

 than pappus. 



Hound's Tongue (Cynoglossum officinale, L.) 



This is one of the southern types, not usually found in ancient 

 deposits. To-day it is found in Europe, N. Africa, Siberia, eastward 

 to Asia, and it has been introduced into the United States. In Great 

 Britain it has been found in the Peninsula province, Channel, Thames, 

 Anglia provinces; Severn province; not in Brecon, Radnor, or Car- 

 digan, in S. Wales; Montgomery, in N. Wales; Trent province; 

 Mersey, Humber, Tyne, Lakes provinces, except I. of Man; E. Low- 

 lands, except Peebles, Selkirk, Roxburgh; E. Highlands, except 

 Stirling, S. Perth, Aberdeen, Banff, Elgin, Easterness. It is rare in 

 Ireland. 



Hound's Tongue is really a plant of the fields, but is found com- 

 monly in waste places. It grows by the sea-coast on sandy dunes. It 

 is to be found surviving on the kitchen-middens of old houses. It is 

 often extensively spread in parks and similar places. Its status at best 

 is that of such plants as Burdock, Borage, Comfrey, Henbane, Deadly 

 Nightshade, and others. 



The first Greek name, and its English equivalent, refer to the 

 characteristic shape of the leaves of this plant, which is upright, tall, 

 and leafy, the stem being rarely branched at the top, angular, very 

 downy, with short close hairs, with long root, radical leaves, stalked, 

 egg-shaped to acute, downy with silky, greyish, closely appressed hairs, 

 both sides, the stem-leaves stalkless, lance-shaped, and heart-shaped 

 below. 



The reddish, purple -veined flowers are borne in long cymes, on 

 curved-back flower-stalks which are downy and alternate. The calyx 

 lobes are blunt, shiny within. The corolla is half as long as the calyx, 

 and funnel-shaped. The capsules are flat, prickly, and catch in the 

 wool of animals. 



The plant is 2 ft. . high. It flowers in June and July, and is 

 biennial, propagated by seeds, and worth a place in the garden. 



The corolla is monopetalous, and the mouth is closed by 5 scales, 

 which are purple, swollen above, on the edge of the tube, and half as 

 long as the limb, and perforated. The anthers are below the nectaries. 



