cently cleared of wood, in several distinct stations in the
parishes of Mayfield and Waldron. In one of these, Knight’s
Farm, Mayfield, a mile from Cross-in-hand, our specimens
were gathered, early in July 1826, when the flowering
season was almost past.
The herb arises from a white, fleshy, spindle-shaped root,
is smooth in every part, and has a milky juice. The stems
are from a foot to nearly three feet high, simple, straight,
angular, terminated by an oblong spike of yellowish-white
flowers, which becomes cylindrical as the flowers expand, and
gradually attains, in strong plants, the length of three or four
inches. The root-leaves and lowest stem-leaves are stalked
and heart-shaped, with serratures not regularly double, nor
yet, or but rarely, quite simple. (See our slightly magnified
sketch.) The leaves higher up are simply serrated and gradually
narrower. The upper part of the stem is bare of
leaves; or, if a few occur, they are mostly linear and entire,
like the bracteas in the spike, which are usually so short,
except a few of the lowermost, as to be hidden among the
flowers. The style is bifid; the capsule of two cells. Occasionally,
as if by accident, three stigmas are to be found.
It is somewhat doubtful whether the blue-flowered variety
mentioned by authors be not really a distinct species.
—W. B.