336 scROPHULARiACE^. [J'erbascum. 



the pedicels, those higher up subuhite and shorter than the expanded flowers ; all 

 with incurved and ascei]ding points. Pedicels when in flower and fruit elon- 

 gated, very unequal, mostly 2 or 3 times as long as the calyx, cylindrical, stellate- 

 pubescent, with or without one or more subulate bracts at their base. Calyx very 

 deeply cleft, not half as long as the corolla, downy outside ; sepals linear, subu- 

 late, acute, single-ribbed. Corolla bright yellow, sometimes, it is said, white, 

 about 9 or 10 lines in diameter, deeply 5-cleft, the segments obovate-oblong, a lit- 

 tle unequal and downy externally, commonly marked around the orifice uf the 

 very short funnel-shaped throat in a stellate form, with 5 purplish brown some- 

 what lunate spots intersected by a narrow streak, and within these a row of 

 smaller more irregularly shaped spots of the same colour. Stamens nearly equal, 

 the 3 superior ones rather the shortest, ascending; filaments stout, thickening 

 upwards, densely bearded in their middle part with long, spreading, simple hairs 

 of a palish violet, their tips slightly enlarged or glandular; a/i(/ici-s nearly semi- 

 circular, strongly compressed, 1-celled? bursting along their upper margin ; pol- 

 len bright orange verging on scarlet. Germen globose, densely clothed with 

 snow-white rigid hairs ; style long, ascending, slightly dilated upwards, glabrous 

 or sometimes hairy below ; s%m« capitate, globose, glandulose- pilose, greenish. 

 Capsules small, about as long as the calyx, ovato-globnse, brownish and tomen- 

 tose-pubescent, very obtuse, tipped with the style. Seeds numerous, dull brown, 

 less abruptly truncate than those of V. Thapsus, otherwise scarcely differing from 

 iheni in size, shape or sculpture. 



Our Veclian plant is the variety figured in the continuation of the Fl. Londi- 

 nensis, and differs from that of E. B. in having larger and perhaps rather paler 

 flowers. The latter, which I have observed in Suffollc, is, 1 think, of more slender 

 habit and still deeper green. 



This species obtained the name of nigrum either from the comparatively dark 

 lurid green of the leaves, or, as Wahleuberg suggests, from its turning black in 

 drying. 



§§§ Leaves all decurrent, glabrous on both sides or nearly so. Floivers solitary, in 

 pairs or few together, in a long, racemose, lax spike. 



3. V. Blattaria, L. Moth Mullein. " Leaves crenate oblong 

 glabrous, radical ones sinuate, upper ones acuminate, flowers soli- 

 tary stalked remote collected into an elongated branched glandu- 

 lar-hairy raceme, pedicels much longer than the calyx." — Br. Fl. 

 p. 303. E. B. t. 393. 



p. Flowers white. 



On chalky, gravelly or clayey banks, pastures and by waysides ; very rare in a 

 truly wild state : less unfrequent with white flowers in stations usually mure or 

 less suspicious. i^Z. June — October. Q,Sm.Hook.; 3' , DC. he. 



JB. Tl/erf. — Under the wall of Binstead churchyard, but evidently the outcast 

 of the adjoining garden. 



W. Med. — In a retired lane called Gallants leading from Ganson's or Gaskin's 

 Barn towards Carisbrooke, certainly wild, and with ihe usual yellow flowers of 

 the species, 1839. 



/3. The more common var. in this island, but too often, I fear, escaped from 

 gardens. On the Dover, occasionally, near Ryde Castle. In Binstead church- 

 yard, but in both places the outcast of gardens. At Swainslon, Mr. James Ham- 

 mond. By Fern hill, Mr. J. Tayler, who thought it indigenous, but being the 

 white-flowered var. it was probably only an escape, as I have [not ?] since observed 

 it there!!! 



Capsule the size of a peppercorn, nearly globular, brownish, glabrous and 

 wrinkled. Seeds numerous, blackish brown, covered with deep longitudinal and 

 transverse furrows and prominent intermediate points, attached to a round central 

 receptacle connected with the inflexed margin of the valves. 



