302 SUMMER FLOWERS. 



*** Flowers solitary, axillary. 



V. hedersefolia : annual ; stems procumbent ; leaves broadly 

 orbicular,, with 5-7 coarse teeth, the middle one broad, 

 rounded ; flowers pale blue, the sepals broadly heart-shaped. 

 A weed of cultivation. Fl. May, June. 



V. agrestis : annual ; stems hairy, branched, procumbent, 

 J-l foot long ; leaves ovate, toothed, the lowest opposite, 

 but mostly alternate, each with a single small blue or pink- 

 ish-white flower in its axil, the sepals oblong; capsule of 2 

 ovoid, erect lobes. A common weed. Fl. April to September. 



V. polita is a variety with ovate sepals, and larger blue 

 flowers ; and the allied V. Buxbaumii, another weed of culti- 

 vation, closely resembles this, species, but is larger in all its 

 parts, with the flowers bright blue, and the lobes of the cap- 

 sule broad and divaricate. 



(230) Verbascum. MULLEIN. 



V. Thapsus : biennial ; stem stout, erect, simple or branched, 

 24 feet high, clothed with soft woolly hairs ; leaves oblong, 

 pointed, narrowed at the base into two wings running down 

 the stem, the lower ones often stalked ; flowers in a dense, 

 woolly terminal spike, sometimes a foot or more long, the 

 corolla large, yellow, three of the filaments covered with 

 yellowish woolly hairs. High Taper. Roadsides and waste 

 places. Fl. July, August. 



V. nigrum : stem sparingly clothed with woolly hairs, 2-3 

 feet high, ending in a long, simple or slightly branched ra- 

 ceme ; leaves crenate, nearly glabrous above, the lower ones 

 large, cordate-oblong, on long stalks; flowers numerous, small, 

 yellow, with bright purple hairs to the filaments. Banks and 

 waysides. Fl. July, August. 



