WATER FIG-WORT. Ill 



colour. The leaves are placed in pairs on the stem, each 

 succeeding pair being at right angles with the pair below 

 it ; all are on foot-stalks, and each pair is ordinarily separated 

 by some considerable interval of bare stem from its 

 neighbours. In form the leaves are somewhat heart-shaped, 

 but often more oblong than those we have figured, and the 

 veining is very conspicuous. Hooker truly says that they 

 are " crenatc-serrate, cordate-oblong, obtuse," and we leave 

 this statement in all its simplicity, unmarred by any 

 explanations of our own, to the consideration of our readers. 

 The flowers are terminal, and surmount the whole ; the 

 inflorescence is paniculate, and at each branching we find a 

 little floral leaf, or bract. The calyx has five conspicuous 

 lobes, and these are fringed by a rather ragged-looking 

 brown membraneous border. The corolla is almost globular, 

 the lobes at its mouth being very short and broad ; the two 

 upper ones stand boldly out from the flower ; the two lateral 

 ones take the same general direction as the upper, but are 

 much shorter ; and the fifth is turned sharply downwards. 

 There are four anther-bearing stamens, and ordinarily a 

 fifth and barren one beneath the upper lip of the corolla. 

 After the flowering is over we find the roundish capsules 

 each containing numerous small brown seeds. 



The water fig-wort is sometimes called the water betony, 

 a name at one time the more common of the two. It was 

 bestowed upon it from the resemblance of its leaves to the 

 wood betony, but as it differs entirely from that plant in 

 every other respect, the name may well be allowed to drop. 

 The name fig-wort is derived from the form of the root in 

 one of the species of Scrophularia. The S. nodosa, or 

 knotted fig-wort, the species in question, is a fairly common 

 plant. It derives its name from its thick and knotty roots, 



