SCROPIITJLARIACEJE. 183 



2-celled, the lobes mucronate. Capsule ovoid-conical, laterally 

 compressed, falcate or oblique, loculicidally dehiscing by 2 valves. 

 Seeds large, ovoid-trigonous, 1 or 2 in each cell. 



Annuals, with branched stems and opposite leaves ; the flowers 

 rose-coloured and yellow, and in spikes ; or in distant pairs and 

 yellow or variegated with rose or violet ; the bracts not unfre- 

 quently coloured. 



The name of this genus of plants comes from fii\as (nielas), black, and tzvcwq (jmros), 

 wheat, as it communicates a greyish colour when mixed with wheat-flour. 



SPECIES I.— ME LAMP Y RUM CRISTATUM. Linn. 



Plate M. 



Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XX. Tab. MDCCXXXVII. 

 JJillut, Fl. GalL et Germ. Exsicc. No. G01. 



Bracts coloured, ovate, acuminated, folded in two and recurved; 

 the lower ones with a leaflike point, all somewhat cordate, 

 pectinated with spreading slender ciliated teeth at the margins; 

 point entire and herbaceous. Flowers horizontal, in a densely imbri- 

 cated 4-sided spike with excavated faces. Calyx sub-glabrous ; 

 teeth ciliated, unequal ; the upper ones longly awned, with a hairy 

 midrib ; the lower ones half as long as the upper. Tube of the 

 corolla bent about the middle, more than twice as long as the 

 longest calyx-teeth, and more than five times as long as the lips. 

 Capsule with a semicircular profile. 



Very local. In woods, thickets, hedges, or rarely cornfields. 

 Plentiful in the North-west of Essex, especially near Saffron 

 "Walden ; also in the counties of Cambridge, Hants, Hunts, Herts, 

 Beds, Norfolk, Suffolk. 



England. Annual. Late Summer. 



Stem 6 inches to 2 feet high, erect, wiry, 4-sided, puberulent, with 

 opposite branches. Leaves strapshaped or lanceolate-strapshaped, 

 acuminate, 1 to 4 inches long. Spikes tetraquetrous, terminating 

 the stem and branches, those of the latter smaller, the principal 

 one 1 to 2 inches long. Bracts densely imbricated, purplish- 

 rose fading to green, cut at the base into slender acute often bifid 

 teeth. Flowers puberulent, sessile, solitary in the axils of the 

 bracts, about f inch long, pale-yellow stained with purple-rose 

 towards the apex ; the inside of the lips purple, the palate yellow, 

 the whole corolla at length changing to purplish-rose. Capsule 

 ^ inch long, exceeding the calyx, much compressed, with two large 

 seeds in each cell. Plant sub-glabrous, with the stem, upper side 

 of the leaves, and veins beneath puberulent. 



