SEra. 1, 1867.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



203 



minor is an annual ; besides which, the flowers of 

 the former are racemose, while in this species they 

 are solitary, growing - in the axils of the leaves. It 

 is a small plant, with a weak but erect stem, much 

 branched, and somewhat clammy, about six inches 

 in height, but often much shorter ; the flowers are 

 small and inconspicuous, of a light purple colour, 

 tinged with yellow or white ; the leaves are narrow 

 and dark green. The old writers evidently con- 

 sidered this a true Snapdragon ; they called it the 

 Least Calf 's-snout, or Small Creeping Snapdragon, 

 thus connecting it with Antirrhinum Orontium, which 

 they call the Lesser Calf's-snout, or Snapdragon. 

 It is by no means uncommon in cornfields, or as a 

 weed in gardens ; and we have noticed it in two 

 places growing in great profusion between the lines 

 on the railway, a habitat apparently congenial to it. 

 In Macgillivray's arrangement of TTithering's 

 British Plants, this species is spoken of as " rare " ; 

 but this statement must be taken with reference to 

 Scotland only, as in England it is very generally 

 distributed, although less frequent towards the 

 north. It blossoms from the end of May until late 

 in the season. 



II. We now come to our second group, which 

 contains the three species with procumbent stems 

 and broader leaves ; the blossoms of each are also 

 solitary. The first of these is the Ivy-leaved Toad- 

 flax (Linaria Cymbalaria), a plant which, originally 

 introduced, has most completely established itself 

 in the land of its adoption. Johnson, in his edition 

 of Gerarde's Herbal (1633), says that it " growes 

 wilde upon walls in Italie, but in gardens with us;" 

 while Ray, in the " Synopsis " (1721), gives only 

 two or three localities for it, mentioning especially 

 the walls of Chelsea Garden, and neighbouring 

 places. It is now, however, common on walls in 

 many parts of England, especially in the neighbour- 

 hood of London; it prefers a damp situation, in 

 which the leaves attain great luxuriance. These, 

 as the name of the plant implies, resemble those of 

 the ivy, although very much smaller ; they are deep 

 green above, frecpiently pink or purple beneath, and 

 of a somewhat fleshy texture. The blossoms of this 

 Toadflax, as of the two next species, are axillary, on 

 long footstalks ; they are small, pale-blue spotted 

 with yellow and white, and very numerous. The 

 whole plant is very graceful in appearance, especi- 

 ally when, growing on the top of a wall, the long 

 trailing shoots hang down in dense mass'es on either 

 side. Miss Pratt, in the " Flowering Plants of Great 

 Britain," says that " the capsules, before ripening, 

 turn round towards the wall on which the plant 

 so often grows, and place themselves in a crevice or 

 hole, so as to shed the seeds, when ripened, in a 

 place where they may thrive, instead of scattering 

 them on the ground, where they would be wasted." 

 The fine fibrous roots insinuate themselves so tightly 

 into these crevices, that it is almost impossible 



to remove them without breaking. Although an 

 introduced plant, the Ivy-leaved Toadflax has 

 obtained not only "a local habitation," but also 

 " a name" — in fact, two or three ; it is popularly 

 called Mother of Thousands, and, less frequently, 

 Pellitory-of-the-Wall, and Maiden-hair. The winter 

 frosts are usually too severe for it, and the leaves 

 then disappear, but it is by nature a perennial ; the 

 blossoms peep out about the end of April, and con- 

 tinue until the approach of winter. — Our other two 

 species are known by the English name Eluellin, 

 and have so much in common that they may be 

 appropriately considered together. The Bound- 

 leaved Eluellin (Linaria spuria) is a trailing plant 

 with many stems, and grey-green, dusty-looking 

 leaves, mostly alternate, which are usually downy, 

 and round or egg-shaped. The blossom, although 

 small, is extremely beautiful, the lower lip being- 

 pale yellow, and the upper deep purple, almost 

 black. The Halbert- leaved, or Sharp -pointed 

 Eluellin (Linaria Elatine), has leaves of the same 

 dusty hue, but they are narrower, longer, halbert- 

 sluqied, and sharply pointed ; the flowers are also 

 like those of Linaria spuria, but smaller, and the 

 purple of the upper lip is of a somewhat lighter 

 shade. Both are annuals, growing in cornfields, and, 

 more rarely, on waste ground, in England and Ireland, 

 preferring, although not confined to, a gravelly soil : 

 Linaria Elatine is the more common. Their blossoms 

 expand in July ; but it is not until after harvest that 

 they attract much notice, being previously over- 

 shadowed by the waving wheat. We shall often, 

 however, find a stubble-field gay with these two 

 species, in conjunction with the Least Toadflax, the 

 blue and scarlet Pimpernels, the Spreading Bur 

 Parsley, and the Basil Thyme, and many more 

 equally pretty, and hitherto equally overlooked. 

 Although not now used in medicine, the "vertues" 

 of Linaria Elatine seem to be very noteworthy— as 

 the following extract from Gerarde, which we cannot 

 resist quoting, will show. It is " not onely of a 

 singular astringent facultie, but of such singular 

 efficacy to heale spreading and eating cankers, and 

 corrosive ulcers, that its vertue in a manner passeth 

 all credit in these fretting sores, upon sure proofe 

 done unto sundry persons, and especially upon a 

 man whom Pena reporteth to have his nose 

 eaten most grievously with a canker or eating sore, 

 who sent for the Physitions and Chirurgions that 

 were famously knowne to be the best, and they with 

 one consent concluded to cut the said nose off, to 

 preserve the rest of his face : among these Surgeons 

 and Physitions came a poore sorie Barbar, who had 

 no more skill than he had learned by tradition, and 

 yet undertook to cure the patient. This foresaid 

 Barbar, standing in the companie and hearing their 

 determination, desired that he might make triall of 

 an herbe which he had seene his master use for the 

 same purpose, which herbe (Elatine), though he were 



