The capsule is said by S. to be oval-ovoid. As eggs always _are_
oval, I don't feel farther informed by the epithet. The capsule and seed
both are of entirely indescribable shapes, with any number of sides--very
foxglove-like, and inordinately large. The seeds of the entire family are
'ovoid-subtrigonous.'--S.
11. I find only two species given as British by S., namely, Sylvatica and
Palustris; but I take first for the Regina, the beautiful Arctic species D.
1105, Flora Suecica, 555. Rose-coloured in the stem, pale pink in the
flowers (corollae pallide incarnatae), the calices furry against the cold,
whence the present ugly name, Hirsuta. Only on the highest crests of the
Lapland Alps.
(2) Rosea, D. 225, there called Sylvatica, as by S., presumably because "in
pascuis subhumidis non rarae." Beautifully drawn, but, as I have described
it, vigorously erect, and with no decumbency whatever in any part of it.
Root branched, and enormous in proportion to plant, and I fancy therefore
must be good for something if one knew it. But Gerarde, who calls the plant
Red Rattle, (it having indeed much in common with the Yellow Rattle), says,
"It groweth in moist and moorish meadows; the herbe is not only
unprofitable, but likewise hurtful, and an infirmity of the meadows."
(3) Palustris, D. 2055, S. 996--scarcely any likeness between the plates.
"Everywhere in the meadows," according to D.
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