CLASS XIT. ORDER II.] PEDICDLAUIA. 843 



oblique, compressed, two celled. Seeds angular, rough, and 

 reticulated. Name from Pediculus, a louse; so named from the 

 plant's supposed property of producing lousiness in sheep that 

 feed upon them. 



1. P. palus'tris, Linn. (Fig. 974.) Marsh Louse-wort, or tall Red- 

 Rattle. Stem and branches erect; upper lip of the corolla with an 

 awl-shaped tooth on each side near the apex ; calyx two lobed, broadly 

 ovate, ribbed and hairy, the margin toothed and crisped ; leaves 

 pinnate, the lobes sub-pinnatifid and crisped. 



English Botany, t. 399 English Flora, vol. iii. p. 129. Hooker, 

 British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 237. Lindley, Synopsis, p. 190. 



Root tapering, branched, and fibrous. Stem erect, from twelve to 

 eighteen inches high, somewhat angular and downy, mostly with nu- 

 merous erect branches from the base upwards, opposite and alternate. 

 Leaves numerous, from one to two inches long, pinnated, with opposite 

 and alternate sub-pinnatifid lobes, more or less toothed and crisped on 

 the margin, dark green, smooth, or somewhat downy, the common stalk 

 ciliated at the base. Inflorescence solitary axillary flowers in the axis 

 of the upper leaves. Calyx ovate, tubular, two lobed, numerously 

 ribbed, downy, of a pinkish colour, the lobes ovate and acute, unequally 

 toothed and crisped upon the margin. Cotolla with a somewhat in- 

 flated tube, longer than the calyx, two lipped, the upper one laterally 

 compressed, curved, concave, truncated, with a small awl-shaped tooth 

 on each side near the apex, and frequently another about the middle 

 of the lateral margins, a darker pink than the lower lip, which is 

 spreading, of three unequal roundish lobes, of an elegant pink colour, 

 fringed on the margins. Stamens with smooth thread-shaped fila- 

 ments inserted into the base of the corolla, and curved beneath the 

 under lip. Anthers ovate, two lobed, pointed at the base, yellow. 

 Styles slender, thread-shaped, downy, as long as the stamens. Stigmas 

 small, oblique. Capsules oblong, or ovate, obliquely pointed, com- 

 pressed, two celled, two valved. Seeds about six in each cell. 

 Habitat. Wet meadows and marshy places; not uncommon. 

 Perennial ; flowering in June and July. 



The whole plant is acrid and unpleasant to the taste ; it is refused 

 by cattle, though goats eat it. The common idea that this plant pro- 

 duces vermin in sheep is as incorrectly founded as the belief that the 

 Droseras cause the rot in the same animal ; in fact, the origin of this 

 disease must be sought far in a more general cause, viz., the bad 

 pasturage and wet soil in which these plants delight to grow, by which 

 diseases are much more likely to be produced, than from the eating 

 of any single plant. 



2. P. sylva^tica, Linn. (Fig. 975.) Pasture Louse-wort, or Dwarf 

 Red-Rattle. Stem erect, its branches spreading ; upper lip of the 

 corolla with an angular awl-shaped tooth on each side near the apex ; 



