220 THE WONDERS OF VEGETATION 



(what villainous names for such pretty things). Few 

 plants rival it in beauty and airiness. It comes orig- 

 inally from the Morea, and it seems almost to be a 

 plant of the air, free from the weight and grossness 

 of the things of this earth. It blooms in summer, and 

 the flowers remain in full beauty for several weeks. 

 [The flowers, which are of a bright yellow, are very 

 numerous and grow in bunches, while the leaves, with 

 their graceful outlines, are alternated, and the steins are 

 'slender and beautifully interlaced with each other. 



To this rich and varied order of plants belong a 

 number of charming small flowers which adorn our 

 gardens, and some of which are endowed with extraor- 

 dinary medical properties. Such are the SpudweU 

 Veronica, a bitter plant; the mullein, the hyssqp, 

 sharp and astringent, the fox glove, a poisonous plant 

 of w T hich only the very smallest doses can be taken 

 with impunity, the cow wheat, the horse- wort, the pig- 

 wort and the paulownia, all of them flowers and trees 

 remarkable for their beauty and elegance. According 

 to their species the flowers are either solitary and sep- 

 arate or united together in cymes, clusters or spikes. 



Besides the Antirrhinum graccum which we 

 have mentioned, there are other species not less worthy 

 of interest these are the wolfs mouth (A. majus\ the 

 snap-dragon (A. aranteum), and the Antirrhinum au~ 

 gustifolium-y with its long and slender leaves. 



