MICHIGAN WEEDS. 



405 



FIGWORT FAMILY. SCROPHULARIACEAE. 



A large family of seed plants consisting of 2,500 species most abundant in temperate regions. Its 

 botanical peculiarities on one side shade off into the potato family and on the other into the mint 

 family. 



A remarkably small number of plants are distinguished for economic qualities. A few are orna- 

 mental, a few are weeds; there is not a 'fruit," "vegetable" or forage plant in the list. 



Fig. 186 (164). 



Beaked Nightshade. Solarium rostratum 

 Dunal. A very prickly, bushy, yellowish, 

 annual, 30-60 cm. high; leaves pinnately-lobed; 

 calyx densely prickly; corolla yellow; fruit a 

 formidable, spiny bur, about 3 cm. in diameter. 



Waste places, hailing from the south and 

 west, where it was the original food of the 

 famous potato beetle. 



(Fig. 186 belongs to Nightshade family.) 



17 



Fig. 187 (165). 



Butter and Eggs. Toadflax. Linaria 

 vulgaris Hill. (Linaria Linaria (L.) Karst.) A 

 pale green, erect perennial, 30-90 cm. high, 

 spreading by slender underground stems; leaves 

 very numerous, very narrow; flowers light 

 yellow and dark orange having a spur at the 

 base. 



Naturalized from Europe and widely dis- 

 tributed as a weed in temperate regions. 



