FI. v. i. p. 54. — Tlelh. FI. Cantab. (3rd ed.) p. 7. — Hook. FI. Scot. p. 4. — Grev. 
FI. Kdin. p. 2. — FI. Devon, pp. 2 & 169.— Johnston’s FI. Berwick, v. i. p. 6. — 
Rev. G. K. Sm. FI. of S. Kent, p. 1. — Walk. FI. of Oxf. p. 3. — Hay's Syn. p. 
289. — Johnsons Gerarde, p. 351. — Circaea ovalijolia, Gray’s Nat. Air. v. ii. 
]>. 558. 
Localities. — In moist shady woods, coppices, hedge bottoms, churchyards, 
orchards, ike. — Not uncommon. 
Perennial. — Flowers from June to August. 
Root creeping. Stem from a foot and a half to two feet high, 
round, leafy, the joints swelling, and sometimes reddish, clothed, 
more or less, with soft hairs, which, on the lower part of the 
stem, are reflexed (bent backwards), on the upper part straight 
and projecting. Leaves opposite, stalked, egg-spear-shaped, 
somewhat toothed, minutely hairy, hairs on the footstalks and 
veins indexed (bent inwards). Clusters (Racemes), as well as 
the stems, more or less branched. Calyx-leaves coloured, deflexed. 
Petals inversely heart-shaped, spreading, white or rose coloured. 
Capsule reflexed, clothed with white hooked bristles. Seeds two. 
According to Mr. Curtis the caterpillar of Sphinx Elpenor, or 
Elephant Hawk Moth, which chiefly confines itself to the Galium 
palustre, or Marsh Ladies Bedstraw, has sometimes been found 
feeding on this plant ; and we are informed by the Rev. G. E. 
Smith, in his very interesting little work on the Phoenogamous (or 
flowering) Plants of South Kent, that “ this plant, with Mercuridlis 
perennis, three species of Salix, Rosa canina, R. rubiginosa ; the 
Monthly Provence, Bishop, and Frankfort roses in gardens, Fra- 
ejaria sterilis, &c. is used in the construction of cells by the various 
Leaf-cutter Bees. The plants of Circce'a, destitute of flowers,” Mr. 
Smith observes, “ are usually preferred.” 
Pucc’/nia Circa' <b of Persoon’s Synopsis, p. 228, and Greville’s 
Flora Edinensis, p. 429, is not uncommon on the leaves of this 
species of Circce'a in Bagley Wood, near Oxford ; and in 1826, I 
observed a new species of Ery'siphe, which Dr. Greville has 
named Ery'siphe nitida, (see my Stirp. Crypt. Oxon. n. 97.), in 
great abundance, on the leaves and stems of the same plant, both in 
Bagley Wood, and in the Botanic Garden. 
