DESCRIPTIONS OF SOME COMMON" WEEDS 223 



feet high ; stem purplish ; leaves thin, ovate, acute or 

 acuminate ; flowers consisting of a five-toothed calyx and 

 a fi ve-lobed funnel-form corolla, stamens included, filiform 

 filaments inserted below the middle of the corolla tube ; 

 capsule globular, prickly, four-valved and two-celled. 

 Abundant in fields and waste places from New England 

 to Ontario to North Dakota, Nebraska, Texas and Flor- 

 ida ; naturalized from tropical America. The Datura Stra- 

 monium of the same distribution has a green stem and 

 a white corolla. 



Fig. 1403. Purple thorn apple (Datura Tatuia). Common around 

 barns and roadsides. (Ada Hayden.) 



Figwort Family (Scrophulariaceae). Mainly herbs 

 with a few shrubs and trees ; leaves without stipules ; flow- 

 ers perfect, regular or irregular ; calyx four to five- 

 toothed, cleft or divided ; corolla irregular, two-lipped or 

 nearly regular; stamens two to five, didynamous or 

 nearly equal, inserted on the corolla; pistil one, two- 

 celled, many ovuled ; fruit a capsule ; seeds numerous, 

 with a small embryo in copious albumen. About 2,500 

 species of wide distribution ; few, however, of economic 

 importance, although several are medicinal. Among the 

 latter are foxglove (Digitalis piirpurca) and mullein (Ver- 

 bascum Thapsus). 



