WASTE PLACES, ETC. 



129 



ORDER SOLANACE^E 



Black Nightshade (Solanum nigrum, L.). The 

 habitat of this plant is waste ground, cultivated 

 ground. The plant is herbaceous and erect in 

 habit. The plant is smooth or downy. The stems 

 are angled, tubercled. The leaves are rhomboid 

 to ovate, wavy, bluntly toothed, narrowed to the 

 stalk. The flowers are white, few, in an umbel- 

 like, lateral cyme, and drooping, on slender stalks. 

 The calyx-lobes are broad, blunt. The corolla- 

 lobes are fringed with hairs, bent back. The fruit- 

 stalks are thickened above. The berries are 

 globular, black. The plant is 6-24 in. high, 

 flowering from June to November, and is a herb- 

 aceous annual. 



Tea Plant (Lycium chinense, Mill. = L, bar- 

 barum, Auct. angl.). This plant is found in 

 hedges, &c., gardens. On the coasts of Norfolk, 

 as round Kelling, it appears to be naturalized. 

 The plant has the shrub habit, and is straggling. 

 The branches are pendulous and bear spines. The 

 leaves are narrow, lance-shaped. The flowers are 

 blue. The calyx is 2-lipped, as long as the limb. 

 The anther-stalks are woolly below. The berries 

 are oblong and red. The plant is 4-12 ft. high, 

 flowering from June to August, and is a perennial 

 shrub. 



Thorn Apple (Datura Stramonium, L.). This 

 plant is found, as an alien, near towns and villages, 

 having been used formerly medicinally, and in 

 waste places, being rare. The plant is erect in 

 habit. The leaves are ovate, unequally toothed, 

 wavy, smooth. The flowers are white, large, 

 erect. The capsule is erect, spinose, with 4 dis- 

 sepiments below, 2 at the top. The plant is 1-2 

 ft. high, flowering from June to September, and 

 is a herbaceous annual. 



ORDER SCROPHULARIACE^: 



Hoary Mullein ( Verbascum pulverulentum, 

 Vill.). In Britain this plant is a weed of waste 

 ground and waysides. The habit is erect. The 

 plant is mealy. The stem is round. The leaves 

 are stellately downy, broad, the margin with small 

 scallops, matted with mealy, woolly hairs. The 

 stem-leaves are heart - shaped, stalkless, ovate, 

 with a long, narrow point. The radical leaves are 

 oblong to elliptic, narrowed into a stalk. The 

 flowers are bright yellow, in a pyramidal, panicle- 

 like raceme, several flowers within each bract, on 

 short stalks, which are woolly. The sepals are 

 small, lance-shaped, woolly, the teeth smooth. 

 The anthers are not decurrent, with the hairs of 

 the anther-stalks white. The capsule is small and 

 ovoid. The plant is 2-4 ft. high, flowering in 

 July and August, and is a herbaceous biennial. 



White Mullein ( Verbascum I.ychnitis, L.). The 

 habitat of this species is roadsides, waste places, 

 and it is largely a casual. In S. England, how- 

 ever, it may be a native in dry pastures and woods, 

 and in the northern part of Europe. The habit is 

 erect. The stem is angular. The leaves are stel- 

 lately downy, not decurrent, scalloped, smooth 

 VOL. VI. 



above, woolly and powdery below, the radical 

 leaves elliptic to oblong, wedge-shaped below, 

 hardly stalked, blunt, coarsely scalloped, green 

 above, white beneath. The stem-leaves are stalk- 

 less, ovate, long and narrow-pointed. The flowers 

 are white, or yellowish, in narrow, panicle-like 

 racemes, which are erect, with many flowers, 

 several to each bract, short-stalked, small. The 

 stamens are equal, the anthers not decurrent, the 

 stalks having white hairs. The calyx is small, 

 woolly. The style is slender. The capsule is 

 ovoid, small. The plant is 2-3 ft. high, flowering 

 in July and August, and is a herbaceous biennial. 



Sage-leaved Mullein (Verbascum nigrum, L.). 

 The habitat of this species is waste places. In 

 the S. of England it may be native on the borders 

 of woods and broken hill-sides. It also occurs on 

 waste ground on the borders of cultivated fields 

 and villages, and by waysides on gravelly soil. 

 The habit is erect. The stem is angular, the cover- 

 ing not matted but hairy. The radical leaves are 

 stalked, ovate to oblong, or lance-shaped, heart- 

 shaped, doubly scalloped. The stem-leaves are 

 hardly stalked, except the upper, ovate to heart- 

 shaped, scarcely white below, stellately downy, 

 not decurrent, smooth above, downy below. The 

 flowers are small, numerous, bright yellow, in 

 clusters, nearly simple, on a long, erect, panicle- 

 like spike or raceme. The flower-stalks are twice 

 as long as the calyx. The sepals are small, 

 tomentose, lance-shaped. The stamens are equal, 

 the hairs on the stalks purple. The anthers are 

 not decurrent. The seeds are brown, squarish, 

 blunt both ends. The plant is 1-3 It. high, flower- 

 ing from June to October, and is a herbaceous 

 biennial. 



Moth Mullein (Verbascum Blattaria, L.). The 

 habitat of this species is gravelly banks, waste 

 places. It is widely dispersed in the New and 

 Old Worlds, cultivated ground, waste places since 

 the seventeenth century, throughout Central and 

 S. Europe. The plant is erect in habit, and 

 nearly hairless. The stem is more or less angu- 

 lar, slender, branched. The radical leaves are 

 ovate-oblong to lance-shaped, blunt, scalloped, 

 lobed, wavy, or more or less pinnatifid. The stem- 

 leaves are small, stalkless, ovate, not decurrent, 

 half-clasping, oblong, acute, heart-shaped, irregu- 

 larly toothed, more or less scalloped. The flowers 

 are bright yellow, or cream, loose or dense, in a 

 slender, glandular, hairy panicle, the lower bracts 

 leafy. The sepals are oblong, large. The anthers 

 of long stamens are decurrent, with purple hairs 

 on the stalks, 2 longer, hairy on the outside. The 

 ultimate flower-stalks are solitary, about twice as 

 long as the bracts, twice as long as the calyx. 

 The capsule is nearly round. The plant is 1-3 ft. 

 high, flowering from June to October, and is a 

 herbaceous biennial. 



Yellow Figwort (Scrophularia vernalis, L.). 

 The habitat of this plant is waste places and 

 plantations, and it is an escape from gardens. 

 The habit is erect. The rootstock is creeping. 

 The plant is glandular, hairy. The stem is more 

 or less 4-angled, or winged, hairy. The leaves 



