YELLOW AND ORANGE WILD FLOWERS 



Greeks. The hag-taper, used in witchcraft, was 

 made from this plant. In domestic practice, Mullein 

 tea has been long used by country people for reliev- 

 ing coughs and throat irritations, and the dried leaves 

 are smoked for the same purpose. When soaked in 

 oil, the leaves are used for allaying pain, and inflam- 

 mations. The soft, hairy leaves are also said to 

 impart a desirable peach-like glow to the complex- 

 ion of pale cheeks, when rubbed thereon. Children 

 have great fun playing Indian and using the dried 

 stalks as "spears." The usually single, leafy stalk 

 rises from two to seven feet high, from a tufted 

 rosette of leaves. It is round and tough, and is 

 densely covered with whitish, woolly, and branched 

 hairs. The large, thick, velvety, pale green, oblong 

 leaves are sharply pointed, and narrowed at the 

 base. They are obscurely toothed, and prominently 

 ribbed. The basal leaves have broad stems. Those 

 upon the stalk are stemless, narrower, and occur 

 alternately. The light yellow wheel-shaped corolla 

 has five unequal, rounded and spreading lobes. The 

 five protruding orange-tipped stamens are unequal. 

 Three of these are fuzzy or bearded, and shorter 

 than the other two, which are longer and smooth. 

 The pistil is green. The woolly green calyx is five- 

 parted. The flowers are densely crowded in pro- 

 longed, round, terminal, club-shaped spikes, and open, 

 two or three at a time, for one day's duration. The 

 leaves of the large rosette are conspicuous long before 

 the wand-like stalk appears. This Mullein is common 



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