JULY. 151 



but when so admitted lliere is no return, the 

 Kps are closed, and all advance to them is im- 

 peded by a dense thicket of woolly matter, which 

 invests the mouth of rhe lower jaw. But the 

 snapdragon is more merciful than most of our 

 insect traps. The creature receives no injury 

 from confinement, but having consumed the 

 nectareous liquor, and finding no egress, breaks 

 from its dungeon by gnawing a hole at the 

 bottom of this tube, and returning to liberty 

 and hght. The extraordinary manner in which 

 the corolla is formed, the elastic force with 

 which the lower limb closes and fits upon the 

 projection of the upper, manifest the obvious 

 design of the great Architect. 



The French call the snapdragon mvjie de veaii, 

 and the Russians highly value its seeds, which 

 are very numerous. From these they express 

 an oil little inferior in quality to that obtained 

 from the olive. 



A very common flower, with blossoms shaped 

 like those of the snapdragon, the yellow toad-flax, 

 (Linaria vulgaris^) is now conspicuous in hedges 

 by waysides ; for though it scarcely blooms till 

 August, yet its stem of crowded slender leaves 

 of a greyish green, cannot escape notice. 

 Country people tenn this pretty wild flower, 

 butter and cs-gs. The iuice of the toad-flax 

 is often expressed, and when mingled with milk, 

 is set in an open dish, to attract flies, and its 

 sweet flavour proves to them poison. 



The vervain, once so renowned by the Ro- 

 mans, and praised by cur forefathers as the 



