300 scHOPHULARiACEiE. [Rhinanthus- 



reticulately veined and glabrous, broadly and obliquely ovate and pointed, its 

 anterior margin nearly straight, gibbous below, attenuated to a thin edge at top, 

 STiblobate by a deep external furrow. Seeds numerous, pale yellowish brown, 

 elliptic-oblong, very obtuse, terete, quite smooth and glabrous, but coated with a 

 fine reticulated pellicle. 



IX. Rhinanthus, Linn. Yellow-rattle. 



" Calyx inflated, 4-tootlied. Upper lip of the corolla com- 

 pressed laterally, entire, furnished on both sides below the apex 

 with a straight tooth-like appendage or lobe; lower one plane, 3- 

 lobed. Ovary with many ovules. Capsule of 2 cells, obtuse, com- 

 pressed. Seeds imbricated, flat and usually margined." — Br. Fl. 



1. R. Crista-galli, L. Common Yelloiv -rattle. Vect. Fiddle- 

 cases. " Leaves oblong-lanceolate serrated, flowers in lax spikes, 

 calyx glabrous, appendages of the upper lip of the corolla short 

 roundish, bracteas ovate." — Br. Fl. p. 294. E. B. t. 657. R. 

 glaber. Lam. R. minor, Ehrh. 



In mostly damp but often dry meadows and pastures ; larger and more branched 

 on boggy ground, wet spongy heaths and commons : very frequent. Fl. May — 

 July. 0. 



Root whitish, of several wiry branched fibres. Stem erect, rigid, quadrangular, 

 the angles slightly winged* from the somewhat decurrent leaves, simple or mure 

 usually branched, in the larger plants often copiously so, the branches opposite, 

 erect or ascending, forming a bushy herb a foot or two in height, and together 

 with the stem thickly spotted longitudinally with purplish brown in short lines or 

 streaks, more sparingly so or not at all in their lower part. Leaves opposite, quite 

 sessile, dull, sometimes pale, olive-green, firm, a little rigid, smooth and shining, 

 oblong-lanceolate or snblinear, often strongly recurved and deflexed, almost clasp- 

 ing, subincisedly serrate, the serratures rather distant, pointing forwards, obtuse, 

 the sinuses acute, and receiving the deeply depressed, nearly straight and simple 

 veins of the leaf, which at first sight appears for this reason pinnatifid ; the mar- 

 gins of the leaves are slightly spinuloso-ciliate, thickened underneath, and the 

 intercostal areas sprinkled with numerous grayish sinuate spots, which with the 

 intermediate green portion give a reticulated appearance to the whole under side 

 of the leaf. Flowers in rather crowded terminal spikes, arranged in pairs or oppo- 

 site, sometimes pointing one way or secund, more usually alternating in their 

 direction or decussate, the lower ones very shortly stalked, the upper almost ses- 

 sile, each with a solitary bract beneath it, of which the lowermost pair or two are 

 scarcely different from the upper leaves and much larger than the calyx, those 

 above them gradually becoming shorter, paler, broadly ovate, acuminate, more 

 deeply and acutely incised-serrate, the highest of all scarcely longer than the 

 calyx and roundish in their outline. Calyx membranous, pale yellowish green, 

 roundish ovate, ventricose, much compressed laterally, quite glabrous excepting 

 along its thin, narrow, vertical border, which is more or less downy, much enlarged 

 and inflated after flowering, inconspicuously 10-ribbed, with transverse reticula- 

 tions, two of the ribs on each side nearly marginal, one central from the base to 

 the acute sinus of the two ovate, nearly equal, minutely ciliated and submucro- 

 nate teeth or segments, the remaining pair running straight to the point of these 

 latter, and parallel with the central rib and at no great distance from it ; some- 

 times there is another pair between the marginal and three centre ribs. Corolla 

 a little exserted, ringent, about half an inch in length or rather more, bright yel- 

 low, the tube wide, straight, many-ribbed, colourless and membranaceous ; upper 



* Two of the faces, or those directly beneath each pair of leaves, are slightly 

 rounded or convex. 



