GREAT MULLEIN 255 



these infusions will scarcely become a matter for 

 much consideration, but we trust that though not 

 for the purposes of adulteration they will, like 

 ourselves, make room in their pleasaunce not only 

 for the lordly foxglove, but extend a welcome to the 

 scarcely less lordly mullein, and find suitable space, 

 the damper in reason the better, for the comfrey too. 

 The foxglove is a biennial, but when it has once 

 established itself it seeds so freely, that there is 

 little fear of our losing it. 



Some half-dozen species of mullein are found 

 wild in Britain, and all of them repay search and 

 cultivation, 1 but the finest, as well as the commonest, 

 is the great mullein. This grows to some four feet 

 in height, throwing up, like the foxglove, one noble, 

 principal stem, which may or may not and ordi- 

 narily the latter have small lateral stems. This 

 central stem attains to some four feet in height, 

 and is clothed profusely with soft, grey hairs. The 

 leaves, decurrent for some distance down the stem, 

 are also conspicuously woolly, so that the whole 

 plant has a soft, flannel-like look, which gives it a 

 special individuality amongst other growths. The 

 golden flowers form a charming contrast to their 

 grey setting. This, too, is a biennial. 



1 Those who care to put themselves in the hands of the 

 gardener may obtain several interesting cultivated mulleins, 

 as, for instance, the Verbascum phaeniceum, a plant bearing 

 purple flowers having a considerable variation of tint. 



