scROPiirLATUAcn.T:. 175 



Var. a in cornfields ; rather common, especially in the South. 

 Var. & by roadsides, in pastures, open woods, &c. ; very common, 

 and generally distributed. Var. 7, Bepton Common, Sussex (Miss 

 Plowden) ; and Cambridgeshire, — Collector unknown (J. Ball, I.e.). 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Annual. Late Summer 

 and Autumn. 



Stem erect, wiry, hairy with recurved hairs, 3 inches to 2 feet 

 high, generally with numerous opposite branches, except in 

 small specimens. Leaves h to If inch long, remotely serrated or 

 crenate-serrate, with shallow teeth, scabrous above, with short 

 stiff hairs risine from the protuberances, reticulated beneath, with 

 the hairs most numerous and strongest on the midrib. Bacemes 

 very dense in flower, elongating in fruit; lowest bracts usually 

 opposite and like the leaves, the others alternate and narrower. 

 Calyx tubular, reddish, hairy. Corolla ^ inch long, dull-pink, 

 twice as long as the calyx ; tube glabrous, the limb pubescent ; 

 upper lip longest, densely bearded towards the apex, concave, 

 entire, sliffhtly notched ; lower lip shorter than the upper, with 

 3 entire oolong lobes, the middle one the longest. Anther-cells 

 sub-exserted, with very short awns, equal in all the cells. 

 Capsule about \ inch long, slightly compressed, with an impressed 

 line at the junction of the carpels. Seeds minute, pale, with acute 

 raised longitudinal ridges and close transverse lines between them. 

 Plant dull-green, pubescent with short rigid hairs. 



Var. 3 seems to have little claim to be considered a distinct 

 species, as most continental botanists regard it. Boreau gives the 

 time of flowering of O. verna, May to July, and of O. serotina, 

 August to October ; the British var. verna commences flowering in 

 the end of June, and var. serotina in July. 



Mr. J. Ball's var. elegans, which has occurred at Wyndcliff, 

 Chepstow, appears from his description to belong to var. serotina. 



AVith var. y I am quite unacquainted. Professor Babington 

 has not met with it in Cambridgeshire, whence Mr. Ball obtained 

 the specimen on which he founded his O. rotundata. 



Bed Barf sic. 



French, Barlsie Rouge. German, RotW.li' rost. 



Sub-Gextjs II.— EUPTJRAGIA. Griesb. 



Capsule oblong, scarcely compressed, pointed. Seeds very 

 minute, crenately ribbed. Hilum basal. 



