feet high; stem purplish; leaves thin, ovate, acute or acuminate; flowers consisting of a five-toothed calyx and a five-lobed funnel-form corolla, stamens included, filiform filaments inserted below the middle of the corolla tube; capsule globular, prickly, four-valved and two-celled. Abundant in fields and waste places from New England to Ontario to North Dakota, Nebraska, Texas and Florida; naturalized from tropical America. The Datura Stramonium of the same distribution has a green stem and a white corolla.

Fig. 140a. Purple thorn apple (Datura Tatuia). Common around barns and roadsides. (Ada Hayden.)

Figwort Family (Scrophulariaceae).-Mainly herbs with a few shrubs and trees; leaves without stipules; flowers perfect, regular or irregular; calyx four to fivetoothed, cleft or divided; corolla irregular, two-lipped or nearly regular; stamens two to five, didynamous or nearly equal, inserted on the corolla; pistil one, twocelled, many ovuled; fruit a capsule; seeds numerous, with a small embryo in copious albumen. About 2,500 species of wide distribution; few, however, of economic importance, although several are medicinal. Among the latter are foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) and mullein (Verbascum Thapsus).

Great Mullein, Velvet Dock (Verbascum Thapsus, L.). -A tall, densely woolly annual from two to six feet high; leaves oblong, thick, covered with branched hairs, the basal leaves margined petioled; flowers in long, dense spikes; corolla rotate, yellow or rarely white; stamens unequal, the three upper shorter, woolly with short anthers; the two lower smooth with larger anthers. From Nova Scotia north across the continent, south to Missouri and Kansas and west to Utah.

Moth Mullein (Verbascum Blattaria, L.). Stem round, sparingly branched, biennial with smooth leaves, the lower petioled, oblong, ovate, lanceolate, laciniate, serrate, upper clasping; flowers in loose racemes, yellow or white with a tinge of purple; all stamens bearded with violet hairs; capsule nearly globose; seeds numerous. Common eastward, rare in the Mississippi Valley; abundant in the West in Salt Lake Basin.

Toadflax, Butter and Eggs (Linaria vulgaris, Hill).-A smooth, erect, perennial herb, one to three feet high; leaves numerous, linear or nearly so, subalternate, pale; raceme dense, of Fig. 141. Toad- yellow flowers, corolla one inch or flax (Linaria vulmore long, with a spur at the base; upper lip erect, two-lobed, lower threelobed; calyx five-parted; stamens four, didynamous, not exserted; fruit a capsule, opening by one or more holes in the top; seeds small, numerous, winged. Fields and roadsides. Naturalized from Europe.

garis.)

Purple Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea, L.).-Biennial or annual pubescent herb with stout stem; lower leaves ovate or ovate-lanceolate, slender-petioled, upper leaves

smaller, sessile; flowers purple, borne in long drooping racemes; corolla spotted. Native to Europe, but widely naturalized in the Pacific Northwest.

Purslane, Speedwell, Neckweed (Veronica peregrina, L.). Glabrous, glandular, or nearly smooth, branching annual; floral leaves like those of the stem but reduced; flowers axillary and solitary, white; capsule orbicular. A common weed in fields in eastern North America from Nova Scotia to Florida, Missouri, Kansas and Texas. Also in South America and in Europe, almost cosmopolitan.

Broom-rape Family (Orobanchaceae).-Low, thick, fleshy herbs, destitute of leaf green, with parasitic leaves reduced to alternate scales; flowers perfect, irregular, sessile, solitary or on terminal, bracted spikes; calyx persistent, four to five-toothed or four to five-cleft; corolla gamopetalous, more or less two-lipped; stamens five, didynamous, inserted on the tube of the corolla and alternate with its lobes, occasionally a fifth rudimentary stamen; ovary superior, one-celled; ovules numerous; embryo minute. About 200 species of wide distribution, one species in the West being a common parasite on sage.

Broom Rape (Orobanche minor, Sm.).—A parasitic, pubescent herb, pale yellowish brown in color; five inches to one foot in height; flowers loosely spicate, purplish tinged; calyx cleft; corolla two-lipped. Introduced from Europe; parasitic on clover on the coast. O. ramosa, L., is much like the preceding, but more slender and more freely branched; flowers light blue or yellow. Introduced from Europe. Parasitic on tomato in New Jersey and on hemp and tobacco.

Plantain Family (Plantaginaceae).-Mostly stemless herbs, with alternate, or opposite leaves in species having stems; flowers small, polygamous or monoecious; calyx four-parted, persistent; corolla four-lobed, hypogynous; stamens four or only one, inserted on the throat

or tube of the corolla; ovary one to two-celled, or falsely two to four-celled, sessile; ovule one to several in each cavity; fruit a pyxis, circumscissile at or below the middle, or a nutlet; seeds with a mucilaginous testa. Of the three genera of this family, two are native to North America. More than 200 species of wide distribution.

Fig. 142. Rugel's plantain (Plantago Rugelii).

Common Plantain (Plantago major, L.).—A smooth perennial or biennial, sometimes hairy, rarely roughish; leaves ribbed, ovate, oblong, oval or slightly heart-shaped, narrowing into a channeled petiole; flowers in a dense spike, parts in fours; sepals round-ovate or obovate; corolla salver form, withering on the pod; fruit an eight

to eighteen-seeded capsule, opening transversely, so that the top falls off like a lid and the loose partition which holds the seed falls away; seeds angled, reticulated. A common weed, found everywhere, especially along the waysides and near dwellings. Naturalized from Europe. Rugel's Plantain (Plantago Rugelii, Decaisne). Leaves paler and thinner than in P. major; flowers borne on long, thin spikes which become attenuated at the end; sepals oblong, acutely keeled; capsules opening below the middle, four to nine-seeded. Maine and Ontario to Minnesota and Kansas and southward to Florida and Texas.

tago lanceolata).

Rib Grass or Buckhorn (Plantago lanceolata, L.).—A pubescent perennial or biennial with short, erect rootstock; leaves narrowly oblong-lanceolate, somewhat shorter than the scape, and three to fiveribbed; scapes slender with dense spikes, at first capitate, later becoming cylindrical; bracts and sepals dry and brownish; Fig. I 43. sepals four, persistent; corolla smooth; Buckhorn (Planseeds two in each division. Introduced largely by means of its seed, which is frequently an impurity in clover seed. Also known as ribwort, ripple grass, plantain and English plantain; a troublesome weed in the clover fields of the eastern states and becoming increasingly common to Iowa fields. Bracted plantain (P. aristata) has narrow, linear bracts, two to six times as long as the flowers; loosely hairy, but later becoming smooth. Dry plains and prairies from Illinois to Louisiana and westward; naturalized eastward on the coast.

Madder Family (Rubiaceae).-Trees, shrubs, or herbs with entire, simple, opposite or whorled leaves; flowers often dimorphous; calyx teeth adherent to the ovary;