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Dicotyledons with Gamopetalous Flowers — Scrophulariacece . 
Distribution. —A large Natural Order, very widely dispersed through both the Old and New 
World from the Equator to the limits of flowering vegetation ; most numerous in Temperate and Sub¬ 
tropical regions. Several genera, both British and exotic, are partially parasitical by their roots upon 
neighbouring plants. 
Number of British Genera, 13; Species, 49. 
Flowers usually irregular and bilabiate; personate in Snapdragon {Antirrhinum) and Toadflax (Linaria) ; 
spurred in Toadflax ; nearly regular and rotate in Speedwell (Veronica) and Mullein (Verbascum); aestivation of 
the corolla-lobes imbricate; the upper lobe outside as in the Tribe Antirrhinideae (Snapdragon, &c.), or inside as in 
the Tribe Rhinanthideae (Yellow Rattle, &c.). 
Stamens rarely 5 as in Mullein ; usually either 4 and didynamous as in Foxglove ( Digitalis ) and Monkey- 
flower ( Mimulus); in Figwort (Scrophularia) with the fifth usually suppressed stamen partially developed ; or 
stamens diandrous as in Speedwell (Veronica). 
USES, &c.—A few species are used medicinally in their respective countries, but the Order generally is not of 
much economic importance. Foxglove ( Digitalis purpurea ), an indigenous species, is very poisonous and the 
most important of the medicinal species. Many are favourite garden flowers, as Calceolarias, of which numerous 
garden forms have originated through culture, introduced from Western South America; Snapdragon (Antirrhinum 
majus ), indigenous in Southern Europe ; North American Eentstemons and Monkey-flower (Mimulus); Torenia,. 
Collinsia , the climbing Lophospermum and Maurandya, many Speedwells (Veronica), especially cultivated and 
hybrid forms derived from shrubby New Zealand species; Foxglove ( Digitalis ), one of our handsomest indigenous 
plants, and many others. 
