76 PECULIARITIES OF THE SNAPDRAGON. 



adding more gamboge repeatedly during the opera- 

 tion, until the blue is subdued and a clear green 

 produced ; but, if a tedious operation, yet perse- 

 verance will ultimately produce a very brilliant 

 permanent green. 



If the rays of the sun augment the intensity of 

 colour in many instances, they will likewise destroy 

 the hues that have been acquired by many articles ; 

 for the solar beams consist of three distinctly acting 

 rays, by one of which oxygen is conveyed, by 

 another it is taken away : or we may say that part 

 of the solar beam, by reason of its affinity for oxy- 

 gen, extracts it, and consequently the shades of 

 colour, entirely or in part, the solid body of the 

 oxygen becoming converted into gas and flying on"; 

 and thus we say the article has faded. 



We have our walls in many places here decorated 

 with most of the varieties of the great snapdragon 

 (antirrhinum majus) ; the white, the pink, and the 

 common : and that beautiful deviation, with a white 

 tube and crimson termination, is slowly wandering 

 from the garden, and mixing with its congeners. 

 It has not, perhaps, been generally observed, that 

 the flowers of this plant, ' bull- dogs," as the boys 

 call them, are perfect insect traps; multitudes of 

 small creatures seek an entrance into the corolla 

 through the closed lips, which upon a slight pres- 

 sure yield a passage, attracted by the sweet liquor 

 that is found at the base of the germen ; but when 

 so admitted, there is no return, the lips are closed, 

 and all advance to them is impeded by a dense 



