112 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



from Thapsus in Africa, near which place it is said to have formerly abounded. It is 

 one of the many herbs said to poison, or rather to stupefy fish. According to 

 Alexander Trallianus, its ashes made into a soap will restore hair which has become 

 grey, to its original colour. 



SPECIES II. -VERB ASCUM PUL VERULENTUM. Vill. 



Plate DCCCCXXXVIII. 



Reich. Ic. PL Germ, et Helv. Vol. XX. Tab. MDCLXVII. 



V. floccosum, Waldst. & Kit. Koch, Syn. Fl. Germ, et Helv. ed. ii p. 588. Reich, fd. 1. c. 



Stern round, paniculately branched, with the branches spreading 

 and curving upwards. Radical leaves obovate or oblanceolate, gra- 

 dually contracted into short petioles, obtuse or subacute ; lower stem- 

 leaves similar, the others oval or roundish, sessile, not decurrent, 

 acuminate or cuspidate, entire or crenate. Flowers shortly stalked 

 and subsessile, in fascicles arranged in a somewhat interrupted 

 spikelike raceme at the termination of the stem and branches, the 

 whole forming a wide lax pyramidal panicle. Longest pedicels 

 almost as long as the calyx when in flower. Limb of the corolla 

 flat, five or six times as long as the tube. Stamens with all the 

 filaments clothed with white woolly hairs, and with uniform 

 reniform transverse anthers. Stigma capitate. Capsule small, 

 longer than the small calyx-segments. Whole plant densely felted 

 with greyish-white very minute stellate hairs, loosely attached to 

 the plant, and easily rubbed off in flakes, very dense on the calyx 

 and base of the pedicels. 



In waste places, borders of fields, and roadsides. Local. 

 Plentiful round Norwich, but not known to occur, except in the 

 counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. Said to be found in the den of 

 Cullen, in Scotland ; but if so, doubtless introduced there. 



England, Scotland. Biennial. Late Summer 

 and Autumn. 



Stem stout, 18 inches to 5 feet high, much branched. Radical 

 leaves 6 inches to 1 foot long, stalked, resembling those of V. 

 Thapsus, but not so white above when young, and with the stel- 

 late hairs much shorter and more easily rubbed off ; stem-leaves 

 numerous, even the upper ones not decurrent, though senii- 

 amplexicaul ; intermediate ones very shortly stalked, generally 

 remarkably acuminate, at length sub-glabrous above, with irregular 

 patches of very minute felted stellate hairs. Bracts at the base of 

 the clusters of flowers linear-lanceolate, minute. Flowers brigbt- 

 yellow, f inch across, with the limb much flatter than in V. Thapsus. 

 Stamens orange - scarlet with white hairs ; none of the anthers 



