SCROPIITJLAIIIACE^!. 183 
2-ccllcd, the lobes mucronate. Capsule ovoid-conical, laterally 
compressed, falcate or oblique, loculicidally dehiscing- by 2 valves. 
Seeds large, ovoid-trigonous, 1 or 2 in each cell. 
Annuals, with branched stems and opposite leaves ; the flowers 
rose-coloured and yellow, and in spikes ; or in distant pairs and 
yellow or variegated with rose or violet ; the bracts not unfre- 
quently coloured. 
The name of this genus of plants comes from peXac (mdas), black, and nvpoc (puros), 
wheat, as it communicates a greyish colour when mixed with wheat-flour. 
SPECIES L— ME LAMP YRUM CRISTATUM. Linn. 
Plate M. 
Reich. Ic. EL Germ, et Helv. Vol. XX. Tab. MDCCXXXVII. 
Billot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. G01. 
Bracts coloured, ovate, acuminated, folded in two and recurved; 
the lower ones with a leaflike point, all somewhat cordate, 
pectinated with spreading slender ciliated teeth at the margins; 
point entire and herbaceous. Flowers horizontal, in a densely imbri- 
cated 4-sided spike with excavated faces. Calyx sub-glabrous ; 
teeth ciliated, unequal ; the upper ones longly awned, with a hairy 
midrib ; the lower ones half as long as the upper. Tube of the 
corolla bent about the middle, more than twice as long as the 
longest calyx-teeth, and more than five times as long as the lips. 
Capsule with a semicircular profile. 
Very local. In woods, thickets, hedges, or rarely cornfields. 
Plentiful in the North-west of Essex, especially near Saffron 
"Walden ; also in the counties of Cambridge, Hants, Hunts, Herts, 
Beds, Norfolk, Suffolk. 
England. Annual. Late Summer. 
Stem 6 inches to 2 feet high, erect, wiry, 4-sided, puberulent, with 
opposite branches. Leaves strapshaped or lanceolatc-strapshaped, 
acuminate, 1 to 4 inches long. Spikes tetraquetrous, terminating 
the stem and branches, those of the latter smaller, the principal 
one 1 to 2 inches long. Bracts densely imbricated, purplish- 
rose fading to green, cut at the base into slender acute often bind 
teeth. Flowers puberulent, sessile, solitary in the axils of the 
bracts, about -f inch long, pale-yellow stained with purple-rose 
towards the apex ; the inside of the lips purple, the palate yellow, 
the whole corolla at length changing to purplish-rose. Capsule 
J inch long, exceeding the calyx, much compressed, with two large 
seeds in each cell. Plant sub-glabrous, with the stem, upper side 
of the leaves, and veins beneath puberulent. 
