_Verbascum Blattaria_
_Flowers_--Yellow, or frequently white, 5-parted, about 1 in. broad,
marked with brown; borne on spreading pedicles in a long, loose raceme;
all the filaments with violet hairs; 1 protruding pistil. _Stem:_ Erect,
slender, simple, about 2 ft. high, sometimes less, or much taller.
_Leaves:_ Seldom present at flowering time; oblong to ovate, toothed,
mostly sessile, smooth.
_Preferred Habitat_--Dry, open waste land; roadsides, fields.
_Flowering Season_--June-November.
_Distribution_--Naturalized from Europe and Asia, more or less common
throughout the United States and Canada.
“Of beautiful weeds quite a long list might be made without including
any of the so-called wild flowers,” says John Burroughs. “A favorite of
mine is the little Moth Mullein that blooms along the highway, and
about the fields, and maybe upon the edge of the lawn.” Even in winter,
when the slender stem, set with round brown seed-vessels, rises above
the snow, the plant is pleasing to the human eye, as it is to that of
hungry birds.
Butter-and-eggs; Yellow Toadflax; Eggs-and-bacon; Flaxweed;
Brideweed
_Linaria vulgaris_
_Flowers_--Light canary yellow and orange, 1 in. long or over,
irregular, borne in terminal, leafy-bracted spikes. Corolla spurred at
the base, 2-lipped, the upper lip erect, 2-lobed; the lower lip
spreading, 3-lobed, its base an orange-colored palate closing the
throat; 4 stamens in pairs within; 1 pistil. _Stem:_ 1 to 3 ft. tall,
slender, leafy. _Leaves:_ Pale, grass-like.
_Preferred Habitat_--Waste land, roadsides, banks, fields.
_Flowering Season_--June-October.
_Distribution_--Nebraska and Manitoba, eastward to Virginia and Nova
Scotia. Europe and Asia.
An immigrant from Europe, this plebeian perennial, meekly content with
waste places, is rapidly inheriting the earth. Its beautiful spikes of
butter-colored cornucopias, apparently holding the yolk of a diminutive
egg, emit a cheesy odor, suggesting a close dairy. Perhaps half the
charm of the plant--and its charms increase greatly when it is grown in
a garden--consists in the pale bluish-green grass-like leaves with a
bloom on the surface, which are put forth so abundantly from the
sterile shoots.