22 FAMILIAR WILD FLO WEES. 



duced in the flower-beds in one of the London parks. The 

 mullein may be very commonly met with throughout 

 Britain (except in the extreme north of Scotland) on hedge- 

 banks, by roadsides, and other waste ground, and more 

 particularly on gravel, sand, or chalk. It will ordinarily 

 be found in flower during June, July, and August. 



The plant figured in our illustration is the common, or 

 great, mullein, the Terbascum Tkapsus of the botanist. 

 The name was bestowed on the genus and species by 

 Linna3us. Six other species of mullein, though none of 

 them as common as the present plant, may be met with 

 in Britain. Several of these, indeed, are very local, and 

 therefore hardly likely to come under the observation of 

 many of our readers. 



The generic name, we are told, is a corruption from an 

 older form of the word, Barbascum, and this in turn is 

 derived from the Latin barba, a beard a word suggested, 

 it is said, by the rough and shaggy nature of the 

 plant. To ourselves, however, this derivation, even if it 

 be the right one, does not appear very happy. The 

 similitude is not altogether a good one, as the texture of 

 the leaves could scarcely be called rough and shaggy. 

 They are densely covered with long soft hairs, that give to 

 the eye the appearance, and to the hand the feeling, of 

 some rich velvet a property that is far better expressed 

 in its common English name, mullein, a word derived 

 from the Latin mollis, soft. The specific name is said to 

 be derived from Thapsus, a place in Africa, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of which it was said to have been exceedingly 

 common. This sounds exceedingly mythical, but it is 

 certainly true that there was not only a town of that 

 name in Sicily, mentioned both by Virgil and Ovid, 



