FIGWORT FAMILY 



Pistil. — One, two-celled; style slender. 



Fruit. — Ovoid capsule, containing many winged seeds. 



Pollinated by bumblebees and butterflies. Nectar- 

 bearing. 



"The flinty way for garland sighs, 

 The barren field fain would be fair, 

 Sun-beaten path for verdure cries — 

 Linaria hearkens to the prayer. 



'Tis there her golden spikes arise 



Of nectar-laden, gay-lipped cups, 

 'Tis hither winged hunger flies 



And of her honeyed bounty sups." 



One feels a certain sympathy with those renegade 

 plants known as garden escapes: Toadflax, Bouncing- 

 Bet, Muskmallow, and the rest, which have forsaken 

 the seclusion of the garden for the freedom of the 

 highways. These gypsies wander far from the home 

 of the elect, and, wild and free, follow the open road 

 wherever it leads. 



Among this philistine group there is none more 

 attractive and interesting than Butter-and-Eggs, 

 once known as the Ranstead Weed and often called 

 Toadflax. The story goes that Mr. Ranstead, living 

 in the suburbs of Philadelphia, introduced the plant 

 into his garden from England. No one would have 

 objected had it stayed there, but this it elected not 

 to do; it crawled under the fence and visited his 

 neighbors who were market gardeners, and the out- 

 come of the visits was that the plant received the name 

 of Ranstead Weed. The name Toadflax is explained 

 as expressing the resemblance between the rnouth of 

 the flower and the mouth of a toad. If a single 

 blossom be picked and laid upon its back it may 



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