"[Plin. Nat. 25.73.] - PHLOMOS OR VERBASCUM: FIFTEEN REMEDIES.
Verbascum has the name of “phlomos” with the Greeks. Of this plant there are two principal kinds; the white, which is considered to be the male, and the black, thought to be the female. There is a third kind, also, which is only found in the woods. The leaves of these plants are larger than those of the cabbage, and have a hairy surface: the stem is upright, and more than a cubit in height, and the seed black, and never used. The root is single, and about the thickness of the finger. The two principal kinds are found growing in champaign localities. The wild verbascum has leaves like those of elelisphacus, but of an elongated form; the branches are ligneous.”

(The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.)

"[Plin. Nat. 25.74.] - THE PHLOMIS: ONE REMEDY. THE LYCHNITIS OR THRYALLIS.
There are also two varieties of the phlomis, hairy plants, with rounded leaves, and but little elevated above the surface of the earth. A third kind, again, is known as the “lychnitis” by some persons, and as the “thryallis” by others: it has three leaves only, or four at the very utmost, thick and unctuous, and well adapted for making wicks for lamps. The leaves of the phlomos which we have mentioned as the female plant, if wrapped about figs, will preserve them most efficiently from decay, it is said. It seems little better than a loss of time to give the distinguishing characteristics of these three kinds, the effects of them all being precisely the same.
For injuries inflicted by scorpions, an infusion of the root is taken, with rue, in water. Its bitterness is intense, but it is quite as efficacious as the plants already mentioned.”
(The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.)