MOTH-MULLEIN.
Verbascum Blattaria, L. Figwort Family.
Stem.—Tall and slender. Leaves.—Alternate; oblong; crenate-toothed; nearly smooth; the upper ovate, acute, clasping. Flowers.—Yellow or white; purple-tinged; an inch or so across; in a terminal raceme; the pedicels much exceeding the calyx-lobes. Calyx.—Five-parted. Corolla.—Wheel-shaped, with five rounded, somewhat unequal lobes. Stamens.—Five. Filaments violet-bearded. Anthers confluently one-celled. Pollen orange-colored, copious. Ovary.—Two-celled. Style slender. Hab.—The Upper Sacramento Valley, etc.; naturalized from Europe.
The mulleins are natives of Europe, which have found their way across the water to us. Two or three species are now common in some localities. The moth-mullein is so called because its blossoms have the appearance of a number of delicate moths resting upon the stem. This is a tall, green plant.
Another species—V. Thapsus, L.—is also quite common. In the Sacramento Valley its tall, woolly tapers may be seen leaning in every direction, giving the fields a disorderly appearance. This plant abounds throughout Europe and Asia, and was well known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, who made lampwicks of its dried leaves and utilized its stalks, dipped in tallow, for funeral torches. In medieval Europe it was called "hag-taper," because it was employed by witches in their incantations. In Europe at the present time it is known as the "American velvet-plant," because of a mistaken idea that it is a native of this country.