COMMON BLUE-BIRD. 



175 



i, is rather short and wide, its length being 7i inches, its breadth in the 

 duodenal portion 2f twelfths, contracting to 2 twelfths; the rectum of the 

 same width at first, but enlarging into an oblong cloaca, i, 5 twelfths wide; 

 the coeca, h, 2 twelfths long, ^ twelfth broad, cylindrical, 1 inch 1 twelfth 

 distant from the extremity. Elongated salivary glands. 



The trachea is 1 inch 10 twelfths long, moderately flattened, its rings 65, 

 firm, with 2 additional half rings. There are four pairs of inferior laryngeal 

 muscles; the bronchi of about 15 half rings. 



The Great Mullein. 



Vereascum Thapsus, Willd., Sp. PL, vol. i. p. 1001. Pursch, Flor. Amer., vol. i. p. 142. 

 Smith, Engl. Flor., vol. i. p. 512. — Pentandria Monogynia, Linn. — Solane^e, Juss. 



This plant, which is well known in Europe, is equally so in America; but 

 whether it has been accidentally or otherwise introduced into the latter 

 country, I cannot say. At present there is hardly an old field or abandoned 

 piece of ground on the borders of the roads that is not overgrown with it. 

 In the Middle and Southern Districts, it frequently attains a height of five 

 or six feet. The flowers are used in infusion for catarrhs, and a decoction of 

 the leaves is employed in chronic rheumatism. 



