The Yellow-Wort.
Our other example of the Composite flowers is the Ploughman's Spikenard (Inula Conyza), which is common on chalky banks and pastures, flowering from July to September. It is an erect, downy plant, from two to five feet high, with oval, lanceolate, downy leaves of a dull green colour. The upper leaves are entire and sessile, while the lower are toothed and stalked. The numerous flower heads are of a dull yellow colour, with leaflike bracts, arranged in a branched corymb. The involucre bracts are linear and reflexed, and the ray florets are inconspicuous.
Two representatives of the order Gentianaceæ are commonly found on chalk hills and pastures; they are the Field Gentian (Gentiana campestris), and the Perfoliate Yellow-wort (Chlora perfoliata, or Blackstonia perfoliata). The former is an erect plant, from four to ten inches high, with a branched stem; opposite, sessile leaves; and conspicuous, bluish-purple flowers, blooming in August and September. The calyx is cleft into four, the two outer segments being large and ovate. The corolla is also four-cleft, and salver-shaped.
The Great Mullein.
The Yellow-wort is an erect, glaucous plant, with an unbranched stem from six to eighteen inches in height, and beautiful yellow flowers, from four to nine in number, arranged in a cyme. The leaves are in widely-separated pairs, united at their bases, so that the stem penetrates them. The calyx is deeply divided, and the limbs of the corolla are spreading. This plant flowers from June to September.
Some species of Mullein (Verbascum) are particularly partial to chalk and limestone districts. They are handsome plants, belonging to the order Scrophulariaceæ, rendered conspicuous by their woolly leaves and spikes of yellow or white flowers. The Great Mullein (V. Thapsus) is common on banks and roadsides, and flowers from June to August. Its stem is stout, erect, very woolly, and varies from two to five feet in height. The leaves are very large and thick, and are so woolly on both sides that they resemble flannel. The flowers form a large, dense, club-shaped spike. Each has a corolla with five spreading lobes; and five stamens, with white hairs on their filaments, two longer than the other three. The fruit is a capsule containing many seeds and splitting longitudinally.
The White Mullein (V. Lychnitis) is not at all common, but may be found in similar situations. Its stem is angular, seldom more than three feet high, the leaves nearly smooth above, and the flowers white or cream, blooming from June to August.
A third species—the Yellow Hoary Mullein (V. pulverulentum)—grows on banks, chiefly in Norfolk and Suffolk, flowering during July and August. It is about three feet in height; the stem is round, with a mealy surface; and the leaves, which are not continued down the stem, are covered both above and below with starlike hairs that give them a mealy appearance. The flowers form a pyramidal panicle, and are of a bright yellow colour, with scarlet stamens covered with white hairs.
