26. Pedicularis. Calyx not inflated. Capsule ovate or sword-shaped; seeds wingless.
[*][*][*] Anther-cells equal. Capsule 1–4-seeded.
27. Melampyrum. Calyx 4-cleft. Ovary 2-celled, 4-ovuled. Capsule flat, oblique.
1. VERBÁSCUM, L. Mullein.
Calyx 5-parted. Corolla 5-lobed, open or concave, wheel-shaped; the lobes broad and rounded, a little unequal. Stamens 5, all the filaments, or the 3 upper, woolly. Style flattened at the apex. Capsule globular, many-seeded.—Tall and usually woolly biennial herbs, with alternate leaves, those of the stem sessile or decurrent. Flowers in large terminal spikes or racemes, ephemeral; in summer. (The ancient Latin name, altered from Barbascum.)
V. Thápsus, L. (Common Mullein.) Densely woolly throughout; stem tall and stout, simple, winged by the decurrent bases of the oblong acute leaves; flowers (yellow, very rarely white) in a prolonged and very dense cylindrical spike; lower stamens usually beardless.—Fields, a common weed. (Nat. from Eu.)
V. Blattària, L. (Moth M.) Green and smoothish, slender; lower leaves petioled, oblong, doubly serrate, sometimes lyre-shaped, the upper partly clasping, raceme loose; filaments all bearded with violet wool.—Roadsides, throughout our range. Corolla either yellow, or white with a tinge of purple. (Nat. from Eu.)
V. Lychnìtis, L. (White M.) Clothed with thin powdery woolliness; stem and branches angled above; leaves ovate, acute, not decurrent, greenish above; flowers (yellow, rarely white) in a pyramidal panicle; filaments with whitish wool.—Fields, N. Atlantic States, rather rare. (Adv. from Eu.)
2. LINÀRIA, Tourn. Toad-Flax.
Calyx 5-parted. Corolla personate, with the prominent palate often nearly closing the throat, spurred at base on the lower side. Stamens 4. Capsule thin, opening below the summit by one or two pores or chinks. Seeds many.—Herbs, with at least all the upper leaves alternate (in ours), fl. in summer. (Name from Linum, the Flax, which the leaves of some species resemble.)