Verbascum.] LVI. SCKOPHULAKINEiE. 325 



large, one or few to each bract. (Raceme usually 

 simple.) 

 Pedicels mostly longer than the calyx . . . . . 2. V. Blattaria. 



Pedicels shorter than the calyx 3. V. virgatum. 



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 bracts 

 Lower leaves cordate at the base. Raceme nearly simple. 



Hairs of the filaments yellow 4. V. nigrum. 



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, easily rubbed off, on both sides of 



the leaves . . 6. V. pulverulentum. 



1. V. Thapsus, Linn. (fig. 726). Great 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 Europe 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 Linnaeus, 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 Y. 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, Eussian 

 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. FI-. 

 summer and autumn. 



3. V. virgatum, With. (fig. 728). Twiggy 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 together 

 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. Kather more frequent in England than V. Blattaria, 



