COTYLEDON lutea.
Greater Yellow Navelwort.
DECANDRIA Pentagynia.
G e n . Char. Cal. five-cleft. Cor. of one petal.
Nectary of five scales at the base of the germen.
Capsules five.
S p e c . Char. Leaves deeply crenate or toothed; the
lowermost somewhat peltate. Stem spicate, mostly
simple. Flowers erect. Root creeping.
S y n . Cotyledon lutea. Huds. 1 9 4 . Sm. F I. B rit. 4 8 4 ,
TVith. 4 2 6 . H ull. 9 9 .
C. Umbilicus. Linn. S p . P I. 615, u.
C. flore luteo, radice tuberosa repente. Dodart.
Mem. 73, with a figure.
O u r knowledge of this fine plant as growing in Britain is
entirely owing to Mr. Hudson. He gives it as a native of
walls and moist stony places in the west riding of Yorkshire,
on the authority of his friend Tofield, adding that he himself
saw it in the garden of a Mr. Clement who received it from
Somersetshire. Plants communicated by Mr. Hudson to
Chelsea Garden have flourished and increased there, and from
one of them our figure was taken in July last.
The root is perennial, fleshy and creeping. Stem a foot or
more in height, sometimes branched. Lower leaves only
peltate; the rest obovate, scattered, on short stalks, deeply
crenate or toothed, succulent, smooth. Flowers very numerous
in a dense, upright, cylindrical spike, all nearly erect,
on short stalks. Corolla and stamina bright yellow. Nectaries
lunate. Bracteae entire or toothed. -
It is remarkable that Linnaeus should have made this the a,
or primary species, of his C. Umbilicus, whereas the most
common kind, with really umbilicated leaves, and so called
by all authors besides, alone deserves the name. See our
vol. 5. t. 325.