292 PHYTEUMA. [class v. order i. 



erect, simple, roundish, striated, smooth, or slightly scattered over with 

 hairs, from one to two feet high, surrounded by a tuft of leaves at the 

 root, and with alternate ones above. Leaves more or less hairy, espe- 

 cially on the margin, paler beneath, with a strong mid-rib, and 

 numerous small branched lateral veins. The root leaves on long 

 slender footstalks, channelled above, ovate oblong heart-shaped or 

 rounded at the base, the margin crenated, these leaves often wither 

 and die away, while those on the stem are in perfection, the leaves 

 on the lower part of the stem with a short broad footstalk, lanceolate, 

 with serrated margins, alternate, mostly distant, becoming smaller 

 towards the top of the stem, and generally more fringed on the margin, 

 with fewer or without serratures. Infiorescence a terminal, dense, 

 roundish head of numerous beautiful blue Jfoirers, surrounded at the 

 base with several ovate-lanceolate bractea, with a mid-rib, and fringed 

 margins, and each flower has at its base a small ovate lanceolate bractea, 

 about as long as the calyx, which is superior, of five broad lanceolate 

 segments, smooth, spreading. Corolla wheel-shaped, long, narrow, 

 linear, of a fine blue colour, with a short tube. Stamens five, arising 

 from the bottom of the tube, alternating with the segments of the 

 corolla. The filaments slender, awl-shaped, about half as long, or 

 shorter than the corolla. Anthers long, linear, of two cells. Style 

 longer than the corolla, hairy, curved towards the end. Stigma three- 

 cleft, spreading. Capsules ovate, angular, crowned by the persistent 

 calyx, which spreads its segments out in a star-like manner, three 

 celled, opening laterally. Seeds numerous, somewhat angular, attached 

 to a central placenta. 



Habitat. — Pastures, and by road sides, in a chalky soil ; rare. On 

 the downs of Sussex and Hampshire; in Surrey and Kent. 



Perennial; flowering in August. 



2. P. spica'tum, Linn. (Fig. 366.) spiked Rampion. Flowers in an 

 oblong spike ; root leaves oblong cordate, with somewhat compound 

 serratures, on slender footstalks, those of the stem lanceolate, sessile, 

 as are the bractea. 



English Botany, Suppt. t. 2598. — Hooker, British Flora, vol. i. p. 

 115. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 135. 



Root white, fleshy, spindle-shaped, branched, with a few fibres, and 

 containing a milky juice. Stem i-oundish, smooth, striated, and often 

 somewhat twisted in the upper part, erect, simple, from one to three 

 feet high, slender. Leaves numerous, smooth, with a strong mid-rib, 

 and slender branched veins, those from the root and bottom of the 

 stem on channeled footstalks of variable lengths oblong broad at the 

 base and heart-shaped, the margin more or less doubly serrated, 

 smooth, rarely simple, leaves on the lower half of the stem lanceolate, 

 sessile, simply serrated or toothed, those on the upper part, few, small, 

 linear. Inflorescence a terminal cylindrical spike, from two to four 



