378 



SCROPHULARIACEAE (FIG WORT FAMILY) 



day; five stamens, with white filaments, the three upper ones 

 shorter and bearded, with smaller anthers than those of the longer 

 lower ones. Capsule nearly a quarter-inch high, globular, two- 

 celled, downy, filled with many fine, brown seeds. 



Means of control 



Spudding or hoe-cutting of autumn rosettes ; pulling or close 

 cutting of flower-stalks before seed development. 



MOTH MULLEIN 

 Verbdscum Blattdria, L. 



Introduced. Biennial. Propagates by seeds. 



Time of bloom: June to October. 



Seed-time: July to November. 



Range: Quebec to Minnesota, southward to 



Florida and Kansas. 

 Habitat: Clover fields, meadows, pastures, and 



waste places. 



A more pernicious weed than the preceding 

 species, its invasion of grasslands causing the 

 seeds to become mixed with those of timothy 

 and other grasses, from which they are difficult 

 to remove. The leaves are said to repel the 

 cockroach (Blatta), whence the specific name; 

 but the writer has not found the reputation 

 merited. 



Stem two to five feet high, round, slender, 

 simple or occasionally branched, smooth or 

 sparsely set with glandular hairs near the top. 

 Lower leaves oblong, sometimes pinnatifid, 

 smooth, dark green, veiny, double-toothed, three 

 inches to nearly a foot in length, tapering to 

 petioles ; seldom present at flowering time ; upper 

 leaves alternate, pointed and partly clasping. 

 Flowers in long, open racemes, on spreading 

 pedicels nearly an inch long, with small, pointed 

 bracts at the base; corolla about an inch broad, 

 Blattaria). x i. the five lobes unsymmetncal, creamy-white or 



