V E R B A S CUM nigrum.
D ark Mullein.
P E N T A N D JR. IA Monogynia.
G en. Char. Corolla wheel-fhaped, a little irregular.
Capfule with one cell, and two valves.
Spec. Char. Leaves oblong-heart-fhaped, on footftalks.
Syn . Verbafcum nigrum. Linn. Sp. PI. 253. HudJ. FI.
An. 90. With. Bot. Arr. 226. Relh. Cant. 88. ®
V. nigrum flore parvo, apicibus purpureis. Rail Syn.
288.
J B Y what figure of fpeech this beautiful plant can be called
Hack, not having a particle of that colour about it, we will not
determine. All the old botanifts, however, have fo denominated
i t ; and if they had any meaning, it can only have been
that it was not white.
Its dark-green leaves are fometimes hoary beneath, efpecially
the upper ones. The racemus of flowers is longer and more
fimple than in moft of the other fpecies. Nothing can be
more elegant than the purple ftamina contrafted with the
yellow corolla.
This fpecies loves a gravelly foil, and is not rare in Norfolk
and Suffolk. It is very confpicuous at a diftance under hedges
in green fhady lanes, to which it is a great ornament. The
flowers appear about Midfummer, and laft till September. The
root is perennial.