SMALL SNAPDRAGON 



149 



or longer than the corolla, the upper ones being longest. The corolla 

 is striped with veins, with a yellow palate or throat, somewhat hairy. 

 The capsule is stalked, with angular, black seeds. 



The plant may be I ft. high. July to September is the flowering 

 season. It is annual, and increased from seeds. 



The flower has much the same structure as in the Toadflax, being 

 closed and accessible only 

 to humble bees, and the 

 stamens and pistil are 

 arranged in such a way that 

 other insects could not bring 

 about pollination. Both 

 anthers and stigma ripen 

 together. The upper and 

 lower lip (which opens by 

 a spring) close the tube of 

 the corolla. The stamens 

 are under the upper lip, 

 in pairs, the two longer 

 stamens projecting. 



The flowers are larger 

 in A. majus and the en- 

 trance is more tightly 

 closed, whilst the nectaries 

 and honey receptacles are 

 differently placed. The 

 honey is secreted by the 

 green, smooth, fleshy base 

 of the ovary, of which the 

 upper part is pale and covered with fine hairs, remaining fixed to the 

 downy nectary and the base of the anterior stamens. The short, wide 

 spur allows the insect to reach the honey with its proboscis from 

 below. Above and in front there is a thick fringe of stiff, knobbed 

 hairs on the angles of the anterior stamens, Pollen is deposited on 

 the back of the bee. 



The capsule opens by the bursting of i pore above and 2 below, 

 and the seeds fall around the parent plant. 



The Small Snapdragon is a lime-loving plant, and requires a lime 

 or chalk soil, being found mainly on chalk, limestone, or oolite. 



A moth, Mamestra persicarice, is found upon it. 



Antirrhinum, Theophrastus, is from the Greek anti, and rhin, nose, 



Photo. A. R. Ho 



SMALL SNAPDRAGON {Antirrhinum Orontium, L.) 



