VER 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



VER 



733 



light corruption, that appears to be the true name, alluding 

 to its alleged efficacy in incantations. Frequent throughout 

 Europe, on banks and waste ground, flowering in July and 

 August. 



2. Verbascum Thapsoides ; Bastard Mullein. Leaves 

 decurrent ; stem branched. Linneus supposed this to be 

 a male plant, of which the preceding species is the male, 

 and the sixth species the female parent. It agrees with the 

 Jatter in its branched stern, flowers, and the purple hairiness 

 of the filamenta ; and with the former in size, and in the 

 leaves being decurrent, but not totally, and less white. It 

 appeared first in the Botanic Garden at Upsal, but is said to 

 have been before observed by Agerius. 



3. Verbascum Boerhaavii ; Annual Mullein. Leaves sub- 

 lyrate ; flowers sessile. Root annual ; corollas yellow, with 

 the stamina and pistilla purple : the flowers have an agree- 

 able scent at a little distance, but if smelt nearer, or too 

 long, it ceases to be so pleasant. They appear in June and 

 July. Native of the south of Europe. 



4. Verbascum Hsemorrhoidale ; Madeira Mullein. Leaves 

 ovate-oblong, attenuated at the base, tomentose, indistinctly 

 crenulate; racemes spike-form, elongated ; bundles of flowers 

 without bractes. It flowers from June to August: biennial. 

 Native of Madeira. 



5. Verbascum Phlomoides ; Woolly Mullein. Leaves 

 ovate, tomentose on both sides, the lower ones petioled. 

 Root biennial; stem erect, spiked, very tomentose; racemes 

 spike-shaped, with scattered lanceolate bractes, within each 

 of which are four golden-yellow flowers, the middle ones 

 blowing first, then the lowest, and lastly the two lateral ones. 

 It flowers in June and July. Native of Italy, Germany, and 

 the south of France. 



6. Verbascum Lychnitis ; White Mullein. Leaves wedge- 

 oblong, lanceolated above ; stem angular, panicled, seldom 

 more than three feet high ; root biennial ; flowers pedicellecl, 

 in bundles, eream-coloured, with yellow filamenta, and 

 saffron-coloured antherse. This species is remarkable for 

 its straight wandlike angular stalk, its leaves very white 

 beneath, but green with a slight hoariness above, and its 

 cream-coloured flowers, which are produced in great num- 

 bers, in a compound clustered terminating raceme. Native 

 of pastures, road-sides, and waste ground, in Europe. Found 

 plentifully in Kent ; in the lanes about Dartford ; and at 

 Kniver, near Rock-houses, in Staffordshire. 



7. Verbascum Pulverulentum ; Yellow Hoary Mullein. 

 Leaves ovate-oblong, subserrate, mealy on both sides ; stem 

 round, panicled, three or four feet high, branched from top 

 to bottom in a conical form, covered with innumerable golden 

 flowers ; root biennial. The whole plant is covered with a 

 mealy down, which easily rubs off, and when seen in a 

 microscope, is found to consist of numerous starry enlangled 

 atoms. It has the inflorescence of the preceding species, but 

 is more branched, and the corolla is larger, and of a brighter 

 yellow colour. The filamenta are bearded with pale or white 

 hairs, and the antherse are vermilion. A singular instance 

 of irritability has been observed in this, and other plants of 

 this genus. In still warm weather, if two or three smart 

 blows be given to the stem with a stick, all the corollas which 

 are then open, though not immediately loosened, fall oflfin a 

 few minutes, separating one after another from their base; 

 and the calix closes round the germen, seeming as it were 

 to push off the blossom. Dr. Smith has noticed a male 

 plant, found near Hellesdon, in Norfolk, produced from this 

 tpecies, impregnated with the pollen of the ninth ; having 

 the habit of the former, and purple-haired filamenta like the 

 latter, with the leaves more neatly crenate than in this spe- 



cies; the root-leaves petioled; the stem and petioles purple. 

 Native of Europe. Common in many parts of Norfolk 

 and Suffolk, as about Norwich and Bury ; in waste ground, 

 hedges, and the borders of fields, flowering in July; at 

 which time it forms a golden pyramid a yard high, consisting 

 of many hundreds of flowers, and is unquestionably one of 

 the most magnificent of British plants. 



8. Verbascum Ferrugineum ; Rusty Mullein. Leaves sub- 

 villose, wrinkled ; stem-leaves subsessile, equally crenate ; 

 root-leaves oblong-cordate, doubly crenate. Root perennial. 

 The flowers are disposed in a long loose spike, on the upper 

 part of the stalk ; they come out upon short slender pedicels, 

 three or four from the lower joints ; above these there are 

 two at each joint, and at the top they are single: they are 

 of a rusty iron colour, and larger than the common sort. It 

 is well known in gardens, by the name of Iron-coloured Moth 

 Mullein. Native of the south of Europe. This and the 

 eleventh species, having perennial roots, and seldom pro- 

 ducing good seeds in England, are increased by offsets taken 

 in autumn, allowing them time to get good root before winter, 

 otherwise they will not flower in the following summer. 

 These plants thrive best in a sandy loam, and should be 

 planted in an eastern border, having only the morning sun, 

 for they do not thrive well when much exposed to his beams. 



9. Verbascum Nigrum ; Dark Mullein. Leaves oblong- 

 cordate, petioled, waved, crenate, subpubescent ; cluster 

 solitary, spiked, many-flowered. Root perennial ; stem stiff" 

 and straight, angular, striated, purplish, sometimes pubes- 

 cent, little branched ; spike terminating, for the most part 

 solitary, many-flowered, but not very compact, longer and 

 more simple than in most of the other species ; flowers in 

 bundles, about seven in a set, pedicelled. The beauty of its 

 golden-coloured corolla is much enriched by the tints of pur- 

 plish brown at the mouth of the tube, the purple-haired fila- 

 menta, and the saffron-coloured antherse. It varies some- 

 times with white flowers ; and Gmelin mentions a lower 

 variety, with a funnel-form, herbaceous, or proliferous flower. 

 Native of Europe, in a calcareous or gravelly soil : flower- 

 ing about midsummer, and lasting till September. It abounds 

 in Kent, and in the hedges of those retired grassy lanes so 

 frequent in Norfolk and Suffolk : it has been found in the 

 calcareous parts of Cambridgeshire, and in the sandy soils 

 of Bedfordshire ; at Nettlebed, Henley, and Stokencnurch, 

 in Oxfordshire ; between Birmingham and Walsall ; about 

 Hampstead, near Richmond Bridge, at Strand on the 

 Green, and about Harefield, in Middlesex; at Crayford, 

 Shooter's hill, Charlton, Blackheath, Lewisham, Woolwich, 

 Warren, Bromley, West Wickham, Plumstead, Bexley, 

 Westerham, Orpington, Dartford, and Ospringe, in Kent ; 

 on Dupper's hill, near Croydon ; about Esher and Godal- 

 ming, in Surry ; and Tillington, in Sussex. 



10. Verbascum Virgatmn ; Large-flowered Mullein. Leaves 

 oblong-lanceolate, toothed, sessile ; root-leaves sublyrate, 

 pubescent; stem branched; flowers aggregate, subsessile. 

 Root biennial, thick, branched, whitish, bitter. This plant is 

 nearly allied to the twelfth species, but does not seem to be 

 a variety of it, or a male, for that does not grow where this 

 is found, and it may be copiously propagated by seed. It 

 flowers in August and September, and was first observed in 

 a field near Wrexham. 



11. Verbascum Phoeniceum ; Purple Mullein. Leaves 

 ovate, naked, crenate, radical ; stem almost naked, racemed ; 

 root biennial; corolla deep purple. It flowers from May to 

 July. Native of the south of Europe and of Germany. 



12. Verbascum Blattaria ; Moth Mullein. Leaves em- 

 bracing, oblong, smooth, serrate; peduncles one-flowered, 



