12 i ENGLISH BOTANY. 
two of the lower bracts resemble the leaves. The capsule is 
gradually acuminated into a sharp point, as in S. aquatica, not 
blunt and apiculate as in S. Ehrharti. Plant green, glabrous, 
except the rachis, peduncles, and lower portion of the pedicels, 
which are clothed with very short gland-tipped hairs. 
Knotty -rooted Figwort. 
French, Scrophulaire Noueuse. German, Knotige Braunwurz. 
The leaves of this species of Figwort are somewhat purgative and emetic. They 
are employed still by the peasantx-y of some districts as an application to burns and 
swellings, being simply bruised. The Welsh have so much faith in the virtues of the 
plant, that they call it " Deilen DJa," good leaf. The high reputation it once 
had in English herbals has been lost. We read in some of the oldest of these, that 
" Venus owns the herb, and the Celestial Bull will not deny it ; therefore a better 
remedy cannot be for the King's Evil." Gerarde tells us that " Divers doe rashly 
teach, that if it be hanged about the necke or else carried about one, it keepeth 
a man in health." Perhaps the most interesting association with this plant is an 
historical one connected with its tuberous roots, which, during the thirteen months' 
siege of Rochelle by the army of Richelieu, in the year 1628, yielded support to the 
garrison for a considerable period ; hence the French call it " Herbe du Siege." The 
taste and smell of the tubers are, however, so unpleasant, that they would never be 
resorted to but under extreme circumstances. 
SPECIES IV.-SCROPHULARIA SCORODONIA. Linn. 
Plate DCCCCL. 
Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XX. Tab. MDCLXXIII. Fig. 2. 
Rootstock not tuberous. Stem bluntly quadrangular, with the 
angles not winged. Leaves ovate-triangular or triangular, with 
the petioles not winged, acute, very coarsely doubly crenate or 
doubly crcnate-serrate, without lateral lobes from the petiole ; the 
lower ones often obtuse, very deeply cordate at the base, and the 
upper ones generally slightly so. Flowers in lax divaricate axillary 
corymbose cymes arranged in an elongate lax panicle. Bracts 
all like the leaves. Pedicels slender, very thickly clothed with 
gland-tipped hairs, two to three times the length of the calyx at 
tin; moment of flowering. Divisions of the calyx oval, with broad 
scarious margins. Corolla three times as long as the calyx, not 
contracted at the throat. Abortive stamen orbicular or reniform- 
orbicuiar, spatbulate, entire or emarginate. Capsule sub-globular, 
abrupt 1 y acuminated, and apiculate. Stem and leaves hairy, clothed 
with jointed glandular hairs ; pedicels and calyx with short gland- 
tipped hairs. 
