Verbaseum.,] LVI. SCROPHULARINEZ. 325 
large, one or few to each bract, (Raceme usually 
simple.) 5 
- Pedicels maostly longer than the calyx , ; : . . 2 V. Blattaria. 
Pedicels shorter than the calyx . . 38 V. virgatun. 
Plant with more or less white cottony down or wool, "espe- 
cially on the calyx and under side of the leaves. Flowers 
rather small, several to each bract. ' 
Lower leaves cordate at the base. Raceme nearly simple. 
Hairs of the filaments yellow . F ; f . . 4 Vi. nigrwin. 
Lower leaves narrowed at the base. Raceme panicled. 
Hairs of the filaments white. 
Down short and powdery. Upper side of the leaves 
nearly glabrous. 5. V. Lychnitis. 
Down a mealy wool, pe ‘rubbed off, on both sides of 
the leaves. ° . . 6. V.pulverulentum. 
1. V. Thapsus, bith: (fig. 726). ee M.—A stout, erect biennial, 
simple or branched, 2 to 4 feet high, clothed with soft woolly hairs. 
Leaves oblong, pointed, slightly toothed, narrowed at the base into 2 
wings running a long way down the stem ; the lower ones often stalked, 
and 6 or 8 inches long or more. Flowers in a dense, woolly terminal 
spike, sometimes a foot or more long. Corolla yellow, usually 6 to 9 
lines diameter, slightly concave ; 3 of the filaments are covered with 
yellowish woolly hairs, and have short 1-celled anthers; the 2 longer 
stamens glabrous or nearly so, with longer anthers adnate to the 
filaments. Capsule thick, rather longer than the calyx. 
Common on roadsides and waste places, all over EKurope and tem- 
~ perate Asia to the Caucasus, Altai, and Himalaya, and now naturalised 
in America. Frequent in Britain, extending as far north as Aberdeen. 
Fl. summer. A variety with a much larger and flatter corolla and longer 
anthers to the long stamens, not uncommon on the Continent, where 
botanists give it the name of V. thapsiforme, but which is believed by 
some to be the original form described by Linnzeus, is said to have 
been found also in Kent. 
2. V. Blattaria, Linn. (fig. 727). Moth M.—A tall biennial, not 
quite so stout as V. Thapsus, sometimes branched, and either glabrous 
or with a few glandular hairs in the upper part. Leaves oblong, 
coarsely toothed or sinuate; the lower ones stalked, the middle ones 
sessile, the upper ones clasping the stem or shortly decurrent. Flowers 
yellow or rarely white, in a long, loose, simple raceme; the pedicels 
from 3 to 6 lines long, either solitary or rarely 2 together in the axil 
of a green bract. Hairs of the filaments purple. 
On banks and edges of fields, in central and southern Europe, Russian 
and central Asia, and naturalised in North America, but not extending 
into Scandinavia. Indicated in several counties of England south of 
Norfolk and Stafford, and in southern Ireland, but generally regarded 
as an introduced plant, except perhaps near the southern coast. Fl. 
summer and autumn. 
3. V. virgatum, With. (fig. 728). Zwiggy M.—This may be a mere 
variety of V. Blattaria, but the glandular hairs are more abundant, and 
the pedicels of the flowers are very short, usually from 2 to 6 tog ether 
under each bract. 
Apparently limited on the Continent to western and central Europe, 
and generally less common there than V. Blattaria, but established as 
a weed of cultivation in northern as well as tropical America and other 
distant lands. Rather more frequent in England than JV, Slattaria, 
