(Plate CXLVI.)

Family

Fig wort.

Colour

Yellow white, or pinkish.

Odour

Scentless.

Range

General.

Time Of Bloom

July-September.

Flowers: slightly nodding; growing on pedicels along the stem. Calyx: of five sepals. Corolla: with five rounded, delicately veined lobes. Stamens; five; the filaments dark coloured and covered with a purplish wool. Pistil: one. Leaves: those above, alternate; ovate; sessile; toothed; those below on petioles and deeply cut; smooth. Stem: erect; slender.

There is little about this plant either in texture or appearance to suggest its kinship with the common mullen. It is quite a little pretendant to the claims of beauty, and when the different coloured varieties are found growing together in some dry, upland meadow they are very pretty and fairy-like. Unfortunately they perish quickly after being picked. As the specific name suggests, the cockroach and this plant can never agree. In fact that despised tribe are said to hold it in especial abhorrence.