380 



SCROPHULARIACEAE (FIG WORT FAMILY) 



growth as well but will leave the ground clean when the chemical 

 has leached away. Do not use a cultivator in ground befouled with 

 Toad-flax ; it only serves to spread the weed ; hoe and hand-labor 

 are more effective. If the plants are kept persistently and deeply 

 cut throughout the growing season, the underground stems will 

 finally starve to death. 



MARYLAND FIGWORT 

 Scrophularia marildndica, L. 



Other English names: Pilewort, Heal-all. 



Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 



Time of bloom : July to September. 



Seed-time: August to October. 



Range: Massachusetts to South Carolina, Kansas, and Louisiana. 



Habitat : Lowland meadows, fence rows, and borders of woods. 



The knotted roots of this plant have 

 long been reputed a cure for scrofula, 

 piles, and other diseases, and are salable 

 in the drug-market. The time for col- 

 lecting is in autumn, when the summer's 

 growth has stored the roots for winter's 

 sustenance. 



Stem erect, slender, four-angled, 

 smooth except for the glandular hairs on 

 its flower stalks, usually much branched, 

 often purplish red in color, three to eight 

 feet tall. Leaves three inches to a foot 

 in length, opposite, dark green, ovate, 

 long-pointed, saw-toothed, with promi- 

 nent veins and long, slender petioles. 

 Flowers in long, open, leafless panicles 

 at the summit of the stem and the 

 branches ; corolla about a quarter-inch 

 long, dull green outside, glossy purple 



within, with spreading lower lip and 

 FIG. 265. Maryland Fig- . ,. ,., 



wort (Schrophularia mari- u PP er one erect > two P airs of fert l le 

 landica). x J. stamens of unequal length and a sterile 



