232 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



Chalk and limestone or oolite hills forming dry 

 pastures are the habitat of this rare plant. On the 

 chalk it is found on chalk pasture and in chalk grass- 

 land. 



In habit the Bastard Toadflax is prostrate, then 

 ascending, flax-like (hence linophyllum) . The short 

 rootstock is yellow, woody, with fibrous roots, which 

 are attached to various other plants. The stems are 

 numerous, spreading in a circle, leafy, simple as a 

 rule, stiff. The leaves are narrow, linear, lance- 

 shaped. Sometimes when the plant is well-developed 

 the leaves are not so narrow, and branched at the 

 base. They are acute or blunt, one-veined and 

 yellowish-green. 



The flowers are small, in a terminal raceme, or 

 grouped, the stems branched or simple, stalked, the 

 stalks as long as, or longer than, the flowers, white 

 inside. There are three linear bracts, which are 

 finely toothed, the lower central one longer than the 

 flowers. The bracts are attached to the flower-stalks, 

 and form with two bracteoles an involucre. Each 

 flower is on a separate stalk. The perianth is open, 

 short, persistent, lobed as far as the ovary, being 

 tubular or funnel-shaped, bent inwards in fruit, 

 toothed, the lobes wavy or toothed at the margin, 

 triangular, spreading. The ovary is inferior. The 

 fruit is a nut, small, ovoid, green, narrowed into a 

 short foot-stalk, longer than the perianth, netted, 

 ribbed longitudinally. 



The Bastard Toadflax is 4 to 12 in. in height. It 



