FIG-WORT TRIBE. 457 



Britain, but almost unknown in the plains. A stately 

 plant, 2 6 feet high, with large wrinkled leaves, and 

 a tall stem, bearing numerous handsome, purple, bell- 

 shaped flowers, which are arranged in the form of a 

 tapering spike, and droop after expansion. On the inside 

 the flowers are beautifully spotted ; occasionally they 

 are found of a pure white ; but though this variety is 

 elegant, it is by no means so striking a plant as the 

 other. The name Foxglove is by some supposed to be a 

 corruption of folk's glove ; that is, Fairies' gloves. The 

 powdered leaf is a valuable medicine in cases where it 

 is desired to lower the pulse. Fl. June, July. Biennial. 



2. ANTIRRHINUM (Snapdragon). 



1. A. majus (Great Snapdragon). Leaves narrow, 

 tapering ; spikes many-flowered ; sepals egg-shaped, 

 blunt, much shorter than the corolla. In limestone 

 quarries, chalk-pits, and on old walls, common. A hand- 

 some plant, with numerous leafy stems, each of which 

 bears a spike of large, erect, personate flowers of a purple 

 hue sporting to rose-colour or white. Specimens are 

 common in gardens, the tints of which vary considerably ; 

 the most beautiful is of a rich crimson ; one of a delicate 

 lemon-colour is also frequent. Children derive much 

 amusement from pinching 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. June August. Perennial. 



2. A. Orontium (Lesser Snapdragon). Leaves very 

 narrow, tapering ; spikes few-flowered ; sepals much 

 longer than the corolla. Corn-fields, not uncommon. 

 Smaller than the last, and at once distinguished by its 

 leafy sepals, which are much longer than the small 

 purple flowers. Fl. July September. Annual. 



3. LINARIA (Toad-flax). 



1. L. vulgdris (Yellow Toad-flax). Leaves linear, 

 tapering to a point, crowded ; flowers in dense spikes ; 



