358 



SCROPHULARfNiE 



* A. mdjus (Great Snapdragon), 

 stout, handsome plant, with 



a foot high, sometimes branched, with scattered, linear, blunt, 

 downy, viscid leaves, and small, solitary, axillary, short-spurred, 

 pale lilac flowers. — Cornfields on dry soil ; frequent. — Fl. May — 

 October. Annual. 



Several other species occur on ballast heaps near the sea, or as 

 garden escapes, but have no claim to be considered natives. 



3. Antirrhinum (Snapdragon). — A genus of herbs differing 

 from Lindria mainly in having a 

 pouch-like swelling, instead of :i 

 spur, at the base of the cor oil a. 

 (Name from the Greek anti, against, 

 rhis, rhinos, the nose, from the mask- 

 like appearance of the flowers.) 



I. 

 —A 



numerous leafy stems ; leaves lanceo- 

 late ; flowers large, personate, 

 pouched, crimson, pink or white, in 

 many - flowered, dense, bracteate, 

 spike-like, terminal racemes ; sepals 

 ovate, blunt, much shorter than the 

 corolla. — In limestone quarries and 

 chalk-pits, and on old walls ; com- 

 mon, but not indigenous. In gar- 

 dens varieties occur with many beau- 

 tiful colours and veinings. Children 

 derive much amusement from pinch- 

 ing the flowers between the finger 

 and thumb, when the palate opens, 

 as if in imitation of the fabulous 

 monster from which it derives its 

 name. — Fl. July — September. 

 Perennial. 



2. A. Orontium (Lesser Snap- 

 dragon). — A much smaller and more 

 slender plant, generally less than a foot high, with linear leaves, 

 and a few, small, axillary, rose-coloured flowers with linear sepals 

 much longer than the corolla. — Cornfields in the south ; not com- 

 mon. — Fl. July — September. Annual. 



4. ScROPHULARiA (Figwort). — Strong-smelling, stout herbs, 

 with leaves mostly opposite, and flowers in panicles; corolla nearly 

 globose, sh'^rtly 2-lipped ; stamens 4, or with a staminode ; capsule 

 2-valved. (Name from its former use in the treatment of scrolula.) 



ANTIRRHfNUM ORdNTIUM 



{Lesser Snapdragon). 



