Labrate—Scutellaria. 365 
dense bracteate spikes or heads of flowers, in which the upper 
lip of the corolla is large and concave, nearly equalling the 
four stamens. 
6. SCUTELLARIA. 
Slender herbs or more rarely shrubby, with simple leaves. 
Flowers axillary and solitary or geminate, or terminaland spicate 
or racemose. Calyx bilabiate, lips entire, ultimately closing over 
the fruit, and the upper one furnished with a helmet-shaped 
appendage which enlarges as the fruit is advancing towards 
maturity. Corolla-tube long, curved, dilated at the throat, naked 
within; upper lip entire or notched; lateral lobes of the 
lower lip usually connected with the upper, the central one 
spreading. Stamens 4; anthers cohering in pairs. A large 
genus, abundant in America, and scattered throughout the 
northern temperate regions. The genus is represented by two 
species in Britain, S. galericuldta and S. minor; the former, 
common in England, has blue flowers; and the latter is a rather 
rare plant of very slender habit, with small pale pink flowers. 
They are known under the popular name Skull-cap. The generic 
name is from scutella, a dish, in reference to the form of the 
calycinal appendage. 
1. S. mucréntha.—A pretty perennial, usually less than a 
foot high. Leaves lanceolate, obtuse, ciliate. Flowers showy, 
violet-blue, in alternate axillary pairs, produced throughout 
the Summer. A native of Siberia. 
2. 8. ulpina.—oOf about the same stature as the last, with 
nearly sessile ovate-cordate toothed hairy leaves. Flowers in 
dense terminal spikes, wholly purple, or the lower lip of the 
corolla white or yellowish. A native of the mountainous parts 
of Europe and Asia, producing its flowers freely all the 
Summer. : 
3. S. Japoénica.—A creeping species with obovate-spathulate 
leaves narrowed towards the base into a short petiole. Flowers 
in terminal spikes, bright blue or white. A profuse blooming 
plant from Japan. 
8. villésa, from the Andes of Peru, has dense terminal spikes 
of showy scarlet flowers, and is rather tender. There are 
several other interesting hardy species, but the greenhouse 
species from Mexico greatly exceed them in the size and 
brilliancy of tk eir flowers. 
