CYNOGLOSSUM officinale.
Common Hounds-tongue.
PENTANDRI A Monogynia.
G en. C har. Cor. funnel ffiaped ; orifice doled with
arched valves. Seeds deprefled, fixed to the flyle
by their inner margin only.
Spec. C har. Stamina thorter than the corolla.
Leaves broad-lanceolate, downy, feffile.
S yn . Cynogloffiim officinale. Linn. Sp. PI. 192.
Sm. FI. Brit. 216. Hudf. 80. IVith. 227.
Hull. 46. Relb. 77. Sibtb. 69. Abbot. 41.
Curt. Lond. fafc. 4. t. 16. Woodv. Suppl, t. a 16.
Cynogloffiim. Raii Syn. 226.
A b u n d a n t in watte ground and by road tides, flowering
in June and July.
The root is biennial. Whole herb downy and foft to the
touch, exhaling a ftrong foetid fmell refembling that of mice,
or, as fome fay, the urine of dogs, whence the plant has obtained
a coarfe, though appropriate, denomination, which
may be found in Gerarde’s herbal. The Item is about 2 feet
high, round, often furrowed, leafy. Leaves remarkably foft
and pliable, entire, waved, veiny, of a dull grayith green; the
lowermott largett, ttalked, lanceolate; the upper ones embracing
the Item, and almott heartfhaped. Flowers in terminal
recurved clutters, growing out into fpikes forming a
panicle. Calyx downy. Corolla dull purplifli red, its lobes
rounded, as are alfo the little hollow valves that clofe' the mouth
and conceal the ttamina. Stigma acute. Seeds 4, horizontal,
obovate, attached by their points, each clothed in a flat, thick
coat, rough with numerous hooked prickles, by which the
feeds flick to the coats of animals, and are widelv difperfed.
The CynogloJJum is narcotic, aftringent and mucilaginous,
but dangerous to be taken internally, at leaft in quantity.