88 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
SPECIES I-THESIUM HUMIFUSUM. DO. 
Prare MCCXLVIII. 
Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ. et Helv. Vol. XI. Tab. DXLIL. Fig. 1153. 
Billot, Fl. Gall. et Germ. Exsice. No. 636. 
T. linophyllum, Sm. Engl. Bot. No. 247. Hook. & Arn. Brit. Fl. ed. viii. p. 379, non 
Poll. nee D.C. 
T. divaricatum, var. gallicum, gracile, et Anglicum. Alph. D.C. in D.C. Prod. Vol. 
XIV. p. 643. 
Stems very numerous, procumbent or ascending, diffuse, slender, 
wiry, often flexuous, simple or slightly branched. Leaves linear- 
strapshaped, 1-nerved, acute. Flowers in slender panicles, generally 
reduced nearly to racemes ; branches of the panicle spreading in fruit, 
scabrous on the angle, the lower ones generally racemosely branched, 
the upper ones 1-flowered, and equalling or exceeding the flowers. 
Flowers each with 3 bracteoles at the base, the 2 shorter ones as long 
as the perianth or falling short of it. Perianth funnelshaped, the limb 
rolled inwards in fruit. Fruit sessile, attenuated at the base into a 
neck much shorter than the body of the nut, which is roundish-ovoid, 
with longitudinal ribs, crowned by the involute perianth segments, 
which are much shorter than the nut. 
On grassy banks, chiefly on chalky and limestone soils. Rather 
local. Confined to the south of England, extending north to Gloucester, 
Oxford, Cambridge, and Norfolk. 
England. Perennial. Summer, Autumn. 
Root parasitic on various plants, yellowish, woody, passing insensibly 
upwards into the rhizome, which is many-headed. Stems very nume- 
rous, 3 to 18 inches long, slender, furrowed, spreading all round or to 
one side, frequently ascending at the apex. Leaves § to 1 inch long, 
somewhat fleshy, with the midrib scarcely apparent. Panicle branched 
only at the base, or in weak specimens reduced to merely a raceme; 
when the branches are 1-flowered there is commonly no leaf at their 
base, but when there is more than one flower on the peduncle, each 
of these generally springs from the axil of a leaf or bract; stalk of 
the single flowers equalling the perianth, with 3 bracteoles at the 
apex, of which the lower one is considerably longer than the 2 others. 
Flowers about } inch across, the segments fleshy, triangular, white 
inside, green on the back, spreading in flower, incurved in fruit. 
Style short, thick, with a capitate entire or slightly lobed stigma. 
Nut about the size of a mustard seed, olive. Plant glabrous, dull 
ereen, turning to yellowish green, the upper leaves and bracts with 
small cartilaginous teeth on the margins. 
Bastard Toadflaz. 
French, Thésion. German, Verneinkraut. 
