CLASS XIV. ORUKR H.J SCROPHULARIA. 855 



celebrity for their medicinal properties ; externally they were applied 

 as a remedy in inflammatory affections, and the expressed juice or 

 infusion was taken internally for the same diseases, as well as for 

 scrophulous tumours, old ulcers, and hcemorrhoides ; but the plant is 

 not now used for the cure of any of these diseases, indeed its originally 

 being used as a medicine appears to have been rather from the knebs 

 upon the roots bearing some resemblance to scrophulous tumours, than 

 the effects which it produced upon the body. 



2. <S. aquatica. (Fig. 988.) Water Figwort, Water Betony. Leaves 

 ovate oblong, or ovate heart-shaped, serrated, smooth ; petiole and 

 stem winged on the margins ; calyx with roundish obtuse segments, 

 having a broad membranous margin ; scale within the upper lip bifid, 

 with spreading lobes ; root fibrous. 



English Botany, t. 854. English Flora, vol. iii. p. 139. Hooker, 

 British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 239. Lindley, Synopsis, p. 193. 



Root of numerous branched fibres. Stem erect, from three to four 

 feet high, smooth, the angles winged, simple or branched. Leaves 

 numerous, opposite, on narrow winged footstalks, ovate oblong, or 

 oblong, with a heart-shaped base, smooth, the margin crenato-dentate, 

 dark green above, paler beneath and veiny, but the mid-rib and veins 

 not three branched at the base, as in the last species. Inflorescence a 

 long terminal panicle, the -branches short, bearing many flowers in 

 sub-corymbose clusters, the pedicles short, somewhat scattered over 

 with very short glandular hairs. Bracteas awl-shaped. Calyx in five 

 roundish obtuse segments, with a broad thin membranous margin. 

 Corolla with a green sub-globose tube, the limb of short lobes, a deep 

 blood red colour, the upper lip straight, two lobed, having a bifid scale 

 at the base within, the lobes spreading, the lower lip of three short 

 notched segments, the middle one recurved. Stamens with short 

 filaments, and rather large anthers. Style short. Stigma two lobed. 

 Capsule short, sub-globose, with an acute point, crowned by the per- 

 sistent style. Seeds numerous, small, ovate, brown, rough, and 

 wrinkled. 



Habitat. Sides of rivers and wet places; less frequent than the last 

 species. 



Perennial ; flowering in July. 



The properties of this species are similar to the last, and the 

 herbage of this as well as that of the other species is refused by almost 

 all animals. The plant is, nevertheless, not injurious, as would ap- 

 pear from its roots having been used by the French soldiers during the 

 celebrated siege of Rochelle, in 1628, by Cardinal Richelieu, when 

 they were driven to great extremities. Since that time this plant has 

 been called by the French " herbe du siege" 



3. S. Bal'bisii, Hornem. (Fig. 989.) Balbises Figwort. Leaves 

 oblong, heart-shaped, obtuse, obtusely crenated, and at the base on 



