YELLOW AND ORANGE WILD FLOWERS 
Greeks. The hag-taper, used in witchcraft, was 
made from this plant. In domestic practice, Mullein 
tea has been long used by country people for reliev- 
ing coughs and throat irritations, and the dried leaves 
are smoked for the same purpose. When soaked in 
oil, the leaves are used for allaying pain, and inflam- 
mations. The soft, hairy leaves are also said to 
impart a desirable peach-like glow to the complex- 
ion of pale cheeks, when rubbed thereon. Children 
have great fun playing Indian and using the dried 
stalks as “spears.” The usually single, leafy stalk 
rises from two to seven feet high, from a tufted 
rosette of leaves. It is round and tough, and is 
densely covered with whitish, woolly, and branched 
hairs. The large, thick, velvety, pale green, oblong 
leaves are sharply pointed, and narrowed at the 
base. They are obscurely toothed, and prominently 
ribbed. The basal leaves have broad stems. Those 
upon the stalk are stemless, narrower, and occur 
alternately. The light yellow wheel-shaped corolla 
has five unequal, rounded and spreading lobes. The 
five protruding orange-tipped stamens are unequal. 
Three of these are fuzzy or bearded, and shorter 
than the other two, which are longer and smooth. 
The pistil is green. The woolly green calyx is five- 
parted. The flowers are densely crowded in pro- 
longed, round, terminal, club-shaped spikes, and open, 
two or three at a time, for one day’s duration. The 
leaves of the large rosette are conspicuous long before 
the wand-like stalk appears. This Mullein is common 
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