t 123 ]
L I T H O S P E RMUM arvenfo
Corn Gromwell.
b y
P E N T A N D R I A Monogynia•
G en. C har. Cor. funnel-fhaped, pervious and naked.
Cal. in five divifions.
Spec. C har. Seeds rugged. Corolla obtufe, fcarcely
longer than the calyx.
Sy n . Lithofpermum arvenfe. Linn. Sp. PI. 190. HudJ.
FI. An. 79. With. Bot. Arr, 189. Relh.Cant. 76.
Bugloffum arvenfe annuum, Lithofpermi folio. Rail
Syn. 227.
K REQUENT in corn-fields and wafte places, flowering from
May to July. The root is annual, fmall, and not much
branched; its bark abounding with a deep red dye, which
ftains paper, linen, &c. of the fame colour, and is eafily communicated
to oily fubftances. Hence the name of Baftard
Alkanet, fometimes given to this plant. Linnaeus, in Flo. Sue-
cica, fays, the country girls in the north of Sweden ufe the root
to paint their faces, by which they fhould feem to be terribly
deficient, either in healthy natural bloom, or in tafte.
The Item is often very much branched, round, rough, clothed
with alternate, lanceolate, entire, rough and rigid leaves, in
the axillae of the uppermoft of which the flowers Hand folitary,
nearly feflile. The corolla is fmall and white, with five fwell-
ings around its orifice, exa£Uy as in L . purpuro-cceruleum, t. 1x7-
Very near the bottom of its tube Hand the 5 very fhort and minute
ftamina, on a level with the ftyle, which is about half as
long as the tube. The feeds are brown, rugged, and produced
in great abundance, fo that the plant is often a very troublefome
weed.