226 



WEEDS AND USEFUL PLANTS. 



session of the soil. Although the flowers are somewhat show}^ it is a 

 fetid, worthless and very objectionable weed, — the roots very tenacious 

 of life — and requiring much persevering effort to extirpate them. The 

 remarkable variety called Feloria- -with a regular 5-lobed ventricose 

 corolla, 5 spurs, and 5 perfect stamens — is occasionally to be observed. 

 Sometimes these Pelorias are tetramerous ; i. e. the corolla 4-lobed, with 

 4 spurs, &c. They are frequently, if not always, late flowers,— situated 

 at the summit of the raceme of full grown capsules, and apparently the 

 latest floral developments of the plant. Two other European species 

 are sparingly introduced, but they are fortunately not sufficiently dis- 

 semmated to warrant their description here. 



3. PAULOW'NIA, Sieh. ^ Zucc. Paulownia. 



Calyx deeply 5-cleft, divisions thick. Corolla with an elongated de- 

 clined tube and an oblique limb with 5 roundish divisions. Stamens 4, 

 ascending from a declined base, without the rudiment of a fifth. Capsule 

 woody, acuminate, loculicidally 2-valved. Seeds numerous, oblong, sur- 

 rounded by a membranaceous wing, striate. — Trees with, the habit of 

 Catalpa ; natives of Japan. 



1. P. imperia'lis, S:eb ^ Zucc. Leaves opposite, petioled, somewhat 

 3-lobed or entire, broadly ovate cordate : panicle terminal large with 

 many-flowered opposite branches. 

 Imperial Paulownia. Paulownia. 



Tree with liorizontal tortuous branches. Leaves when young canescent hairy on both 

 sides, when old on the under side only, with the upper surface finely pubescent, six 

 inches to a foot in length, and on the young shoots even larger. Calyx divided below the 

 middle, the lobes oblong obtuse, externally tomentose. Corolla 1}^ - 2 inches long, violet 

 or rose color, dotted and streaked with brown and yellow within. Capsule an inch in 

 length, 2-furrowed, persistent. 



Cultivated. i^Z. April -May. 



Obs. A tree of very rapid growth and having a strong resemblance to 

 the Catalpa. The young trees are remarkably vigorous and bear leaves 

 of an enormous size. It is a little too delicate for the climate of 

 NewTork, for three years preceding the present (1858) the flower buds 

 have been very generally killed by the severe winters. The capsules 

 remain on the tree for a very long time and injur-e its appearance. * 



4. DIGITA'LIS, L. Foxglove. 



[From the Latin, Digitate, the finger of a glove ; from the shape of the flowers.] 



Calyx 5-parted. Corolla declined, tube ventricose above, contracted at' 

 base, the limb oblique, upper lip emarginate, the lower 3-tid with the 

 middle lobe the largest. Stamens 4, didynamous. Capsule ovate, with 

 a septicidal dehiscence. Seeds numerous, minute, oblong, angled. Herbs 

 with crowded, petioled radical leaves ; bearing showy j^ovj^r^ in a long 

 raceme. 



1. D. purpu'rea, L, Biennial; lower leaves ovate or elliptic-oblong: 



