150 WILD FLOWERS. 



always turned to meet the sun. Professor 

 Rennie saj-s of the rock rose, " If you take a 

 small probe, or hog's bristle, and irritate any of 

 the numerous stamens of this flower, you will 

 see them fall back from the central column, and 

 spread themselves upon the petals, exhibiting a 

 very pretty example of vegetable irritability little 

 less striking than that of the sensitive plant." 



This simple flower has another point of in- 

 terest, which is, that the rose of Sharon is 

 thought by Linuseus, and many travellers in 

 the east, to be merely a variety of our common 

 rock rose. The cistus roseiis, diifering little 

 from our wild flower, except in colour, is re- 

 garded as the rose of Sharon, because it abounds 

 in that valley, and is scattered in such rich 

 profusion, that it is one of the most striking 

 objects of its vegetation ; while none of those 

 plants which are termed roses are found there, 

 or in the neighbourhood. 



In the old churchyard, or garden wall, the 

 purple, pink, or white snapdragon (^Antirrhinum 

 mqjus) now waves to the soft wind. Children 

 call it bull dogs and rabbit's mouth, and its 

 flower has really an odd resemblance to the 

 mouth of the latter animal. The author of 

 the "Journal of a Naturalist," remarks, that 

 these flowers are perfect insect traps ; and 

 "multitudes of small creatures," he adds, 

 " seek an entrance into the corolla, through 

 the closed lips, which, upon a slight pressure, 

 yield a passage, attracted by the sweet liquor 

 which is found at the bottom of the germen ; 



