BEOWALLIA 



FOXGLOVE OBDEB 



VBEBASCUM 701 



annual herbs, with quite entire mem- 

 branous leaves, and blue, violet, or white 

 flowers, borne singly in the leaf axils, or 

 in one-sided racemes at the ends of the 

 branches. Calyx tubular bell-shaped, 

 4-5- toothed or lobed. Corolla tube 

 elongated, straight, dilated at the top, 

 inverted from the twisting of the staUi, 

 limb spreading 2-lipped. Fertile stamens 

 4, didynamous (2 long, 2 short) often with 

 fringed filaments. Ovary shortly stalked, 

 2-celled, style thread-like, thickened and 

 corrugated above, with a dilated 2-lobed 

 stigma. Capsule membranous or some- 

 what leathery, more or less enclosed by 

 the calyx. Seeds minute. 



Culture and Propagation. — Brow- 

 allias are elegant annuals usually grown 

 in pots for greenhouse and conservatory 

 decoration. Treated in the same way as 

 other tender annuals they may be grown 

 successfully in the open air during the 

 summer months. They may be raised 

 from seeds sown in heat in February and 

 March, and transferred at the end of May 

 or beginning of June in beds by them- 



selves, or in broad masses in the flower 

 border. 



B. elata. — A beautiful Peruvian annual 

 about 18 in. high with oval taper-pointed 

 glossy green leaves, and deep blue flowers 

 having a glandular hairy calyx. There is 

 a variety with pure white flowers, and one 

 called grandiflora with pale blue flowers 

 larger than those of the type. 



B. elata is the species generally grown 

 for outdoor decoration, but the following 

 may also be grown in the same way if 

 seeds can be obtained, viz. : B. demissa, a 

 Central American species 6-12 in. high, 

 with clear pale blue flowers ; B. gramdi- 

 flora, 1-3 ft. high, native of Peru, with 

 white or very pale hlao flowers having a 

 greenish-yellow tube ; B. BoezU, a dense 

 compact species lJ-2 ft. high from the 

 Rocky Mountains, with beautiful delicate 

 sky-blue or white flowers with a yellow 

 tube ; and B. viscosa (also known as B, 

 pulchella, and B. Czerwiahowski), a W. 

 Indian species, 12-18 in., having deep blue 

 flowers with a white blotch in the centre. 



LXXXI. SCROPHULARINEiE— Foxglove Order 



A large order of herbs, undershrubs, or shrubs or small trees, usually scent- 

 less, but sometimes fetid, rarely aromatic, smooth or hairy, sometimes clammy. 

 Leaves in a few genera all alternate, but in most the lower ones or all opposite 

 or verticillate. Stipules none. Flowers hermaphrodite, mostly irregular. 

 Calyx inferior, persistent, with 5, rarely 4, teeth or lobes. CoroUa gamo- 

 petalous, sometimes almost tubeless rotate or broadly bell-shaped, sometimes 

 with an elongated cylindrical and ventricose tube, or broadened above ; limb 

 4-5-, very rarely 6-8-lobed, lobes equally spreading or more or less 2-lipped. 

 Perfect stamens often 4, didynamous (2 long, 2 short), or only 2 attached to 

 the corolla tube, and alternating with the lobes, the fifth stamen often absent 

 or reduced to an antherless staminode. Ovary superior, sessile, entire, per- 

 fectly or imperfectly 2-celled. Style simple, entire, or 2-lobed at the apex. 

 Fruit a capsule, rarely a berry. Seeds very numerous. 



This important order contains nearly 160 genera and about 1900 species 

 found in all parts of the world from the coldest regions to the hottest part of 

 the Tropics. 



VERBASCUM (Mullein). — This 

 genus contains 100 to 140 species, accord- 

 ing to various authors, of biennial herbs, 

 rarely perennials or undershrubs, more or 

 less clothed with a woolly or floccose down, 

 dwarf and much-branched, the branches 

 sometimes spiny. Often taU and erect 

 in growth, leaves all alternate, often 



softly hairy, quite entire, crenulate, sinuate- 

 toothed or pinnately cut. Flowers in 

 simple or branched spikes or racemes at 

 the ends of the branches, solitary or clus- 

 tered in the axils of the bracts, yellow, 

 brownish-purple, or red, rarely white. 

 Calyx deeply 5-cleft orparted, rarely shortly 

 5-toothed. Corolla more or less rotate. 



