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S C U T E L L A R I A galericulata.
Common Skull-cap.
D ID Y N A M IA Gymnofpermia.
G en. Char. Cal. rim nearly entire, clofed and covered
with a lid after flowering.
Spec. Char. I eaves heart-lanceolate, crenate, rugged.
Flowers axillary.
Syn. Scutellaria galericulata. Linn. Sj>. PI. 835. Hudf.
265. With. 540. Relh. 236. Sihth. 190. Curt.
Lond.fafc. 3. t. 36.
Caflida paluftris vulgatior, flore caeruleo. Rail Syn.
244.
C o m m o n about ditches and reedy rivulets, flowering in
July and Auguft.
The root is perennial and creeping. Stem ere£t, generally
branched about the middle, thickly clothed with leaves to the
top,fquare, roughifh. Leaves oppofite, fpreading, on fhort foot-
ftalks, lanceolate, heart-fhaped at the bafe, regularly and equally
crenate to very near the point, rugged, veiny, clothed with very
fhort hairs, paler beneath. Stipulas none. Flowers axillary,
folitary, almoft feflile, a little drooping. Calyx hairy, flightly
notched, furnifhed on the upper fide with a fmall concave
fcale, which, after the corolla falls, is enlarged and overtops
the already clofed orifice. Corolla tubular, ringent, but not
gaping, hairy, blue, the palate (freaked with white, the tube
pale and purplifh. Stamina and ftyle white. Stigma Ample.
The two oppofite flowers generally droop together on the fame
fide of the (talk.
This genus is eafily diftinguifned by the Angular (Iruflure of
its calyx, which in its advanced (late has been compared to a
helmet, and ferves as a capfule for the feeds, which are naturally
four, though feldom all perfe&ed, the plant being principally
increafed by its root.