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•SCROPHULARIA aquatica*
Water Figwort.
DIDYNAMIA Angiojpermia.
G en . C h ar. Cal. 5-cleft. Cor. fomevvhat globofe,
reverfed. Cap/, fuperior, a-celled.
S p e c . C h ar. Leaves heart-fhaped, on foot-ftalksj
decurrent, blunt. Stem winged*
S yn. Scrophularia aquatica. Linn. Sp. PI. 864. Sm.
FI. Brit. 663. Hud/.i 75. With. 554. Hull. 138.
Relh. 244. Sibth. 196. Abbot. 138. Cart. Londi
fafc. 5. t. 44.
S. aquatica major* Rail Syn. *283.
A NATIVE of watery places, as alder-fwamps, margins
of pools and rivers, &c. not uncommon in England, though
very rare in Scotland. It is perennial, and flowers after
midfummer.
Root fibrous, not knotty as in the Upland S. rndofa. Stem
upright, ftraight, and nearly Ample, 3 or 4 feet high, fquare,
very fmooth, winged, leafy. Leaves oppofite, ftalked, ovate or
elliptical, blunt, ferrated, fmooth ; heart-fhaped at the bafe,
and running down a little upon the edges of the foot-ftalk.
Flowers in fmall forked panicles, oppofitely compounded into
a long leaflefs (though bra&eated) racernus. Calyx fmooth,
deeply five-cleft. Corolla with a greenifh inflated tube ; its
lower lip, which from the flower being reverfed is turned
uppermoft, of a dull dark blood-colour, and furnifhed with a
fmall intermediate lobe within the other two. Capfule
roundifh, a little deprefled, pointed, the inflexed edges of its
valves dividing it into 3 cells. Seeds numerous.
The whole plant is foetid when bruifed. Its old name of
Water Betony arofe merely from the flight refemblance of its
leaves in form to thofe of Betonka officinalis,.