Scutellaria.] labiat^e. 383 



bridge. Near Blackwater mill. In a large willow-thicket by Budbrldge farm. 

 Marsh-diich in a meadow nearly under Maishcombe copse. In a wet copse near 

 Whitefield farm, about what was formerly a pool called the Swan Pond, in some 

 plenty. Near Rookley farm, sparingly, 1844. Wood near the sea-shore between 

 Ryde and Binstead, Wm. Wilson Saunders, Esq. 



W. Med. — At West mill, between Newport and Carisbrooke, in plenty. Miss 

 Dennett ! By the Medina, between Newport and Shide, sparingly, Mr. Snoolce. 



Root or rather rhizoma whitish, creeping horizontally, fibrous at the joints. 

 Stem from about 1 to 2 leet in height, erect, or in damp shady places weak and 

 reclining, subsimple or oppositely branched in the upper part mostly, the branches 

 slender, simple and erect ; hollow, brittle, acutely quadrangular, the angles subu- 

 late, the faces flat, with a raised moulding on two of the sides alternately; nearly 

 {•labrous below, roughish above with short, recurved, strigose pubescence along the 

 angles chiefly, often purplish. Leaves opposite, move or less erect, sometimes 

 widely spreading, and in the procumbent form with their surfaces in the plane of 

 the stem and at right angles to it, from about 1 to 2^ or 3 inches long, pale green, 

 thin and membranous, oblong-lanceolate, more or less acutely pointed, cordate at 

 base, their somewhat revolute edges unequally, distantly and shallowly crenalo- 

 serrate ; wrinkled and slightly pubescent or nearly glabrous above, more downy, 

 pale whitish green and prominently veined beneath. Petioles very short, from 

 less than a line in length in the higher and smaller to 4 or 5 lines in the lower 

 and larger leaves, semiterete, channelled above and downy. Flowers solitary, 

 opposite, axillary and secund, approximated in pairs chiefly on the higher part of 

 the stem and branches. Pedicels scarcely a line in length, subcompressed and 

 downy, with a pair of extremely minute subulate bracts at their base. Calyx 

 about 2 lines in length, finely downy with recurved pubescence, sometimes gla- 

 brous, (LHyht.), tiibular-campanulate, truncate, very shallowly almost obsoletely 

 2-lipped, the lips equal, entire; indistinctly ribbed, and bearing towards the base 

 of its superior half an upvi};ht, transverse, flat scale-like process or pouch, formed 

 by a duplicature of the calyx, of a rectangular figure, rounded at the corners and 

 slightly emarginate, concave at the back : after flowering the anterior portion of 

 the calyx changes its former cylindrical shape; its 2 lips or inferior and superior 

 surfaces become plane and pressed together, closing the mouth entirely; the 

 calyx then splits throughout its whole length along its two lateral rib-like sutures, 

 the dehiscence extending across the saccate process, whence the entire upper half 

 of the calyx is thrown off, leaving the under half persistent. Corolla from about 

 6 to 9 lines in length, downy with still finer, softer and more erect pubescence 

 than the calyx, ascending, 2-lipped, the throat dilated, purplish blue with about 

 12? deeper-coloured ribs; tube cylindrical, many-ribbed, scarcely the length of 

 the calyx, greenish white, glabrous, forming a moderately abrupt bend with the 

 ascending funnel-shaped limb of the corolla, and a gibbosity at the inferior angle 

 of flexure with the latter; upper lip deep purplish blue, galeate, slanting forward 

 over the lower, and nearly closing the orifice between them, its middle lobe 

 vaulted, obliquely ascending, emarginate in front, its roundish narrow border 

 turned back; lateral lobes obliquely ascending and approximate above under the 

 central lobe, their margins strongly revolute ; lower lip rather longer and much 

 broader than the upper, nearly semicircular, in 3 rather shallow sometimes indis- 

 tinct lobes, blue, the centre white and spotted with purple, sometimes with 

 3 grooved lines of the same colour, entire or slightly waved or crenulate, the mid- 

 dle lobe emarginate. Stamens as well as the style included, and lodged with it 

 in the oblong inflated convexity or crown of the upper lip ; filaments dilated and 

 downy in the middle ; anthers densely villous, scarcely cohering, the lobes dark 

 purple; those of the longer pair of stamens united by a very prominent or crest- 

 like and hairy connectivum. Style whitish, cylindrical, glabrous, tapering from 

 its simple, acute, slightly decurved apex. 



Bentham ascribes to the common European plant glabrous stems and leaves, 

 his var. /3. Lab. p. 437. 



