SCROPHULARIACEAE 185 



ft Corolla personate, with a spur, or sac, at base; capsule opening ly chinks, or 



266. UL\A V RIA, Tournef. 

 [Latin, Linum, flax; from a resemblance, in some species.] 

 Calyx 5-parted. Corolla with a prominent palate closing the throat ; 

 upper lip bifid, the lobes folded back. Stamens 4, didynamous, with 

 a minute rudiment of a fifth. Capsule ovoid, or globose, thin, open- 

 ing by 1 or 2 chinks, and by several teeth at apex ; seeds often mar- 

 gined. Leaves mostly alternate ; Jloieers racemose. 

 1. L. vulgaris, Mill. Smooth and glaucous; stem erect, slender, 

 often simple; leaves, lance-linear, acute, numerous; raceme termi- 

 nal, crowded; corolla spurred at base. 

 COMMON LINARIA. Toad-flax. Ranstead-weed. Butter-and-eggs. 



Perennial. Root creeping, subligneous. Stem 1 to 2 or 3 feet high, terete, leafy, 

 sometimes branched, especially near the summit, usually growing in bunches or 

 small patches. Leaves 1 to 2 inches long. Flowers in a bracteate raceme termi- 

 nating the stem, and branches; corolla pale greenish-yellow, the palate bright 

 orange-color; throat villous; spur subulate, about half an inch long. Capsule 

 ovoid-oblong; seeds with a dilate! orbicular margin. 

 Hub. Pastures; fence-rows, Ac. Nat. of Europe. .FZ.June. Fr. Aug. 



Obs. This showy, but worthless, and prevalent weed, is said to 

 have been sent from Wales, as a garden flower, to a Mr. Ranstead, 

 of Philadelphia. JOHN BARTRAM, writing of the troublesome plants, 

 in Pennsylvania, near a century since, says "The most mischiev- 

 ous of these, is the stinking yellow Linaria. It is the most hurtful 

 plant to our pastures that can grow in our northern climate. Neith- 

 er the spade, plough, nor hoe, can eradicate it, when it is spread in 

 a pasture. Every little fibre that is left, will soon increase prodigi- 

 ously; nay, some people have rolled great heaps of logs upon it, 

 and burnt them to ashes, whereby the earth was burnt half a foot 

 deep, yet it put up again, as fresh as ever, covering the ground so 

 close as not to let any grass grow amongst it; and -the cattle can't 

 abide it," This is rather stronger testimony than I am prepared to 

 bear against the plant ; but it is certainly a monopolizing and most 

 unwelcome intruder, on our farms, and requires persevering efforts 

 to get rid of it. Specimens of that remarkable form of the flower, 

 known by the name of Peloria with a regular 5-lobed corolla, 5 

 spurs, and 5 perfect stamens are occasionally to be met with. 

 They are frequently, if not always, late flowers, situated at the 

 summit of the raceme of full-grown capsules, and apparently the 

 latest floral developments of the plant. Sometimes these Pelorias 

 are tetranierous ; i. e. the corolla is 4-lobed, with 4 spurs, and 4 

 stamens. Altogether, the phenomenon is an interesting illustration 

 of the curious metamorphoses to which the organs of plants are sub- 

 ject. 



f- f f Corolla more or less bilabiate, witliout spur or sac at base ; capsule 2- to -i-valwd. 

 * Stamens i perfect, mostly wiUi a conspicuous riulimtnt of a fifth. 



SCROPHUXA^RIA, Tournef. 



[So named from its supposed virtue in curing ficrujj/nila.'] 

 Calyx 5-parted. Corolla-tube globular-ventricose ; border irregu- 



