2598
P I I Y T E U M A spicatum.
Spiked Rampion.
PENTANDRIA Monogynia.
Gen. Char. Corolla rotate, with 5 linear segments.
Stigma 2- or 3-cleft. Capsule inferior, prismatic,
of 2 or 3 cells, opening laterally.
Spec. Char. Flowers in an oblong-cylindrical spike.
Style pubescent. Lower leaves cordate-ovate,
with somewhat compound serratures ; upper ones
lanceolate. Bracteas linear, short, entire.
Syn. Phyteuma spicatum. Linn. Sp. PL 242. FI.
Dan. t. 362. Pers. Syn. v. 1. 194. Lindl. Syn.
Brit. FI. 135.
Rapunculus &c. Hall. Hist. n. 684, a. vulgatior
flore ochroleuco.
R. spicatus alopecuroides. Park. Theatr. 648. ƒ. 2.
Rapuntium majus. Ger.369. Ger. Em. 453. f . 1.
(from a block used also in Lob. Hist. 178. Lob.
Ic.329. Clus. Hist, clxxi. Dod. Pempt. 165.)
P A R K IN SO N speaks of this Phyteuma, together with
some of the Campanula, as growing wild u in divers places
of this land but no subsequent botanist appears to have
noticed it in Britain, until the Rev. Ralph Price met
with it, in 1825, near Hadlow Down, in Mayfield, Sussex.
It having been formerly cultivated as an esculent,
doubts arose as to its claim to be regarded a native ; and
obstacles thrown by the owner of the land in the way of
botanists who wished to visit the spot where it had been
found, had no tendency to remove such doubts. The
plant however, whether originally a native or not, now
grows abundantly, and with the appearance of being truly
indigenous, in woods, thickets and hedges, and fields re