hound's-tongue. 37 



nate, waved, pubescent, soft, of a greyish, dull-green colour, 

 often a foot in length; the lower broadly lanceolate, attenuate, 

 on long footstalks ; the upper sessile, lanceolate, and somewhat 

 ovate at the base. The flowers are small, supported on short pe- 

 duncles, and arranged in terminal and axillary paniculate, uni- 

 lateral, slightly drooping racemes, each with a single amplexicaui 

 bractea near the base. The calyx is inferior, deeply five-cleft, 

 with erect, villous, sub-acute segments. The corolla is funnel- 

 shaped, scarcely longer than the calyx, and of a dull crimson colour ; 

 the tube very short, thick, of a greyish colour spotted with purple ; 

 the limb concave, five-parted, with roundish, obtuse, veined seg- 

 ments, its mouth nearly closed with five oblong, convex, purple 

 scales. The five stamens have short filaments inserted into the 

 margin of the tube, alternate with, and just below the scales, and 

 are tipped with cordate-oblong, greenish anthers. The germen is 

 depressed, smooth, yellowish-green, four-parted, projecting from 

 its centre a pyramidal style, as long as the tube of the corolla, 

 surmounted by a capitate emarginate stigma. The nuts are four, 

 globose, depressed, imperforate at the base, affixed laterally to the 

 central column or style, very rough with prickles externally ; each 

 nut containing an ovate, gibbous, smooth seed. Plate 28, fig. 4, 

 (a) the calyx ; (b) corolla ; (c) pistil ; (d) a nut isolated, attached 

 to the calycine segment. 



Hound's-tongue is frequent in this country in waste ground and 

 by road-sides, flowering from the end of May to August. 



The generic appellation from xvwv, xvvo;, a clog, and yXwcroi, 

 a tongue, and the vernacular names of the plant in this and most of 

 the European languages refer to the shape and softness of the 

 leaves, which have been compared to the tongue of a dog. It 

 is not quite certain whether this plant is the xvvoy\cti<r<rov, 

 of Dioscorides,* and the cynoglossos of Pliny.f 



A variety of the above has been found with white flowers. The 

 genus includes nearly fifty species, but two only of these are indi- 

 genous to Britain ; — the subject of this article and the green-leaved 

 Hound's-tongue (C. sylvaticum), characterized by its ovate, lance- 

 olate, amplexicaui leaves, which are shining, bright-green, scabrous 

 beneath, and free from pubescence. 



Qualities. — The root, or rather the bark of the root, has a 

 * Mat. Med. lib. iv. c. 129. 

 f Hist. lib. xxv. c. 8. 



