606 



THE SCROPHULARIA FAMILY. 



2. Moth Mullein. Verbascum Blattaria, Linn. (Fig. 720.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t, 393.) 



A tall biennial, not quite so stout as 

 the great M., 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 ra- 

 ceme ; the pedicels from 3 to 6 lines 

 long, either solitary or rarely two to- 

 gether in the axil of a green bract. Hairs 

 of the filaments purple. 



On banks and edges of fields, in cen- 

 tral and southern Europe, Russian and 

 central Asia, and naturalized in North 

 America, but not extending into Scan- 

 dinavia. Indicated in several counties 

 of England and southern Ireland, but 



generally regarded as an introduced plant, except perhaps near the 



southern coast. Fl. summer and autumn. 



Fig. 720. 



3. Twiggy Mullein. Verbascum virgatum, With. (Fig. 721.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 550.) 



This may be a mere variety of the 

 moth M., 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 ge- 

 nerally less common there than the moth 

 M., although it has established itself 

 here and there as a weed of cultiva- 

 tion in northern as well as tropical Ame- 

 rica and other distant lands. Rather 

 more frequent in England than the moth 

 M., but very rare and probably intro- 

 duced only in Ireland. FL summer and 

 autumn. 



Fig. 721. 



